Iraq referendum. posted by Richard Seymour

The turnout is supposed to be approximately 61%, although I would take those figures with a pinch of salt given how absurdly wrong some predictions were before, during and shortly after the January election. Nevertheless, with Sunnis registering and turning out in large numbers to try and defeat the constitution, one would anticipate a stronger performance than last time round.

Sunnis have apparently strongly rejected the constitution, with the Anbar province - the area most brutally ravaged by the American occupation, with body counts so high in places like Fallujah that they had to be excluded from the Lancet report - coming out most strongly against. However, officials admit that about one third of polling booths planned for that area were not opened. Human rights activists in Iraq have already pointed out that there weren't that many planned in the first place.

Predictably, several places were simply unable to vote, such as al-Qaim, which has the ongoing Operation Iron Fist to contend with. With war crimes ongoing as we speak, some Iraqis simply can't make the show. Meanwhile, still others who were allowed to vote before are prevented from voting now - namely, Iraqis who live abroad.

It is suggested by most sources that the constitution will probably pass, although there could well be a sufficient opposition in three provinces, perhaps from al-Anbar, Salah al-Din, Ninevah or Diyala.

Predictably, as I suggested, some of the media in the US and UK have tried to milk this for a Magic Purple Finger Moment. Take this nauseating report from the Washington Post. After everything the occupiers have done to that country, a list of crimes that defies superlative, you really have to be a devout apologist to even attempt this self-congratulatory horse shit again.

Anyway, while you wait to see if this disastrous constitution is actually passed, here are a couple of items for your perusal:

World's poorest drafted to do worst jobs in Iraq. Yes, the world's poor are good at cleaning up rich guys' mess for them, often as domestic servants. Now, they're being called to duty in Iraq, to clear bodies from ditches, wash blood from streets and all the other piddling, miserable crap that Zalmay Khalilzad wouldn't touch with a twelve-foot pole.

'IRA bombs' killed 8 British soldiers in Iraq. The scare quotes are because these bombs were devised by British agents planted in the IRA, and because no one is suggesting that the IRA was involved in planting them - although the Reverend Ian Paisley will undoubtedly have a word or two to shout on this matter. The technology seems to have got there from the days when the IRA were assisting Palestinian groups. So, far from being targeted by Iran, UK troops are copping it on account of technology devised by the British during another protracted and violent occupation. Boom!! Feel that? It's the hand of history fucking with you.