Sunshine's Voting Day Experience

You gotta go over and read Sunshine's election day post. Complete with purple finger pictures.

For those of you who don't know, she's a Mosul teenage girl.

Voting before the terrorists wake up. I like that. I don't think she's talking about our troops, Mr. Kerry.

Thanks, Michelle, and all of you who have shown your support

I want to thank Michelle Malkin for helping spread some of the good news I'm trying to share with her readers. The initial volume of responses has been surprising - and I am sending all of these comments to Brian and his peers over in Iraq. I know this has to do them good. The kind words and support are as heartwarming to me as Brian's letter was.

He does have access to email, but they keep him pretty busy over there and he has little time to actually respond. If he has anything to say I'll be sure to post it here. Stuff that comes from Brian I try to put in courier font to look like a typewriter, sort of... and I will introduce his text as such.

I am also sure that this kind of stuff happens frequently, all over Iraq. Our guys (that includes the gals, you know) are typically good human beings who care about other human beings. But you don't see it reported in the MSM. That would be propaganda. ;-)

Thank you all, again. Wow.

-editor

Voting Day

near 70% turnout, dispite early morning explosions in Baghdad. Heh. We don't get that here in America on a day without explosions.

Check out this Washington Times article.

From Reuters:

Sunis Oppose Al-Queda -- urged by clergy to vote

FALLUJA/RAMADI Iraq (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein loyalists who violently opposed January elections have made an about-face as Thursday's polls near, urging fellow Sunni Arabs to vote and warning al Qaeda militants not to attack. In a move unthinkable in the bloody run-up to the last election, guerrillas in the western insurgent heartland of Anbar province say they are even prepared to protect voting stations from fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.
Graffiti calling for holy war is now hard to find.

ABC News Poll - Iraqis Optimistic

Of course, they're "surprised", but ... just the numbers, minus the spin:

• 70% of Iraqis say their own lives are going well
• Nearly 2/3 of Iraqis expect things to improve in the year ahead
• Over 60% of Iraqis feel very safe in their own neighborhoods
• 61% of Iraqis say local security is good
• Average household incomes have soared by 60% in the last 20 months
• 70% of Iraqis rate their own economic situation positively

Cheers!

Iraqi Kids Playing via Nancy

Nancy is an Iraqi student here in the US.

Welcome to Beth-Nahrain: Something to be cheerful about

I can't describe my feelings when I see such pictures of Iraqis, specifically the children, being happy and just enjoying their day...I was filled with excitment to see that the Iraqis are defying the odds and are enjoying their holidays, and trying to make their children have a normal life.

and a whole lot more from the post she got them from in Sooni's blog.

Sooni lives in Baghdad.