Iraqi Voters Speak Out

More good quotes from those Iraqi citizens and expatriates participating in early and absentee voting for Thursday's election for the new National Assembly:

Hamed Al-Nasseri, 56, also of Zarqa, said he was voting to rid his nation of militants. "What they say is bogus. I'm voting to dare these militants, to have a strong parliament and government that would restrain these outlaws," he said.

Truck driver Akeel AlMosawi was so excited about voting that he arrived 30 minutes early at the polling site at a banquet hall in Dearborn, Mich.

"We have to pick good people who we trust to take care of Iraq and not kill us," he said.

"I want to vote because I see the process as free and honest," said Talal Shawkat, 55, a Baghdad native who has lived in Damascus for the past 18 months.

"I hope this leads to democracy in Iraq and freedom for its people," said Mawaheb Mohammed, a 32-year-old college student and a Shiite Muslim from southern Iraq who cast her ballot in London. She said she fled nine years ago when the rest of her family was arrested.

In Denmark, Soran Abul-Aziz spent the night outside a polling station in a sleeping bag. He said he wanted to be the first one to cast his ballot.
"I am very happy. I hope Iraq soon will become a democratic country like Denmark," he said, sporting a red Santa hat.

Bernadet Shukri, 38, who left Baghdad for Warsaw before the American- led invasion three years ago, emerged from the voting station smiling and draped in an Iraqi flag.
"When you had Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the people didn't have anything," she said. "Before, life was very difficult in Iraq. But now it is beginning to work again.

Okay, so it's not quite a "dagger in Saddam's heart", but it certainly does sound promising. And it's a far cry from what the mainstream was reporting leading up to last January's first free elections.

UPDATE: Shawn of Bare Knuckle Politics reports on a recent ABC News poll in Iraq that sheds further light on the feelings of the Iraqi citizens, who indeed seem to be much more optimistic than the liberals of the American media.