Iraqis surprised the world when 70% of eligible voters turned out to vote in Iraq first election in decades. The highest vote turnout in the United States has been 60%, in 2004 and 1968. That means that Iraqis, despite the threat of bombings and violence, had a higher turnout than in the recent American elections.
Even though the turnout was much less in Sunni areas of Iraq, the election went surprisingly well. This was an important precedent for the middle east: Democracy (at least voting).
Hopefully Iraq will be able to stay together as a nation.
Did you hear about the the mutual fund approach to Iraqi federalism? Iraq could had three federal regions (Kurds, Sunni, Shia) but oil production would be in hands of national government. Each Iraqi would "own" a share of the oil production, and each region would receive oil revenue based upon national productivity, and the population of the region (how many shares exist in each region). That way you would have decentralization for government (regional government) but the national oil "mutual fund" would keep national unity. Interesting!
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