This was the Provincial election. The parties and candidates elected during this election will fill provincial councils (state and county government positions), mayor and city council positions and they are supposed to be given local budgets for projects. This is a first in the country, prior to this all money flowed from Bagdhad - - if you wanted something done in your town you had to go the big city, figure out the bureaucracy and fight for the money. I honestly hope this is different. Iraqis are really good people, I haven't met one that strikes me as mean or evil, I am sure there are a few out there, but the ones that I see pretty normal.
Election Notes:
There were 54 polling sites in 33 schools (some schools had 2 or 3 polling sites). Every Iraqi that is eligible to vote had to take his or her ration card and national ID card to their designated polling site and vote. After they voted they folded their ballot, put it in the big box and stuck their finger in purple dye, signifying that they had voted. It was interesting to see ladies in their abyah (the head to toe black dress muslim women wear here) sporting their purple fingers.
The weeks prior to the election (I gave this run down to pop) we attended about a million meetings and rehearsals with every Iraqi general that outranks BG E. At each one the huge difference between old Iraq and new Iraq showed. Old Iraq, some ancient general would stand up and drone on and on and on about minuscule things - - make sure soldiers check voters, we need your full participation, blah, blah, blah, stuff you would expect from an old style figurehead executive that didn't know what else to say and was out of touch with the reality of his job and the soldiers he was supposed to lead. New Iraq, BG E, would stand up at these meetings and give a complete rundown of his polling sites (54 polling sites, 25 in North City, 29 in and around Center City), exactly how his soldiers will secure the sites (occupy the sites, take the roofs around the site, search every house in the vicinity of the polling sites, ask the people to remove all vehicles from around the site, use concrete barriers - - about 350 of them - - and concertina wire - - 600 rolls of it - - (good job Sprint, SFC R and XO on getting all of that to the NP on time) to seal off the sites and get the voters in line and organized, one line for males, one line for females, both lines going through the metal detectors (which his soldiers were trained by Superman and 6.5 on how to use and employ), searches by hand if there were any questions. He was ON IT.
Old Iraq rehearsals consisted of calling all officers to Bagdhad and going over the same list of information that they went over at the last rehearsal, then having lunch. New Iraq rehearsals consisted of BG E driving to each polling site last monday, walking through the site with the LT or CPT in charge of the site giving guidance and generally raising hell if things weren't moving in the right direction. One poor LT reported to BG E without his helmet and weapon - - fired on the spot, big mistake. The rest of the LTs for the rest of the day all had their weapons and helmets. BG E reviewed everything - - commo plan "LT, get on your radio and call your headquarters right now . . . " medical plan "where will you take any casualties if the enemy gets an IED past us?" "why does your ambulance only have half a tank of gas? how can you take care of the citzen's of Iraq like that?". During the first rehearsal he pretty much tore it up.
Second rehearsal (friday before the election), thing were squared away. His BN CDRs had spent time with their soldiers, LTs and CPTs were ready and things looked as good as Iraqi's can make them look. New Iraq went around and encouraged his soldiers, asked them if they needed anything ("Saedi, my vehicle doesn't have enough fuel right now, my BN ran out . . ." Saedi (the term of respect in Arabic, like Sir in English) looked at his S-4 and told him to get more fuel for the trucks. No yelling, just encouragement. Just like the football coach before the big game, tear it up all week, build it back up at the end when things look good. I didn't have to do a darned thing, outside of telling him he was doing the exact right thing, and get more fuel for the S-4 that knew Old Iraq bureaucracy would probably tell him no (Sprint and the XO made this happen).
Day of the Election
New Iraq, BG E, was visibly nervous. First of all, his first line boss, Major General Q, was camped in his office, holding court. BG E wanted to get to work, but when the boss is in your office you have to be nice. MG Q was doing battlefield circulation (moving around, checking things out). BG E snuck out of the room to "go check on something", about 10 minutes later I left also, BG E was up in his operations room with two cell phones and his motorola smoking, pretty much controlling the fight. It was pretty awesome to watch, about 30 minutes later other folks wandered up to look for him, MG Q wanted to go up to Norhtern City, BG E let him know that he was going to stay at the BDE HQs and take care of a few things. MG Q got the hint and left, BG E went back to his cell phones and kept doing what he does best. After MG Q left, BG E calmed down a lot. He spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon travelling around with a news crew from Iraq that wanted to do some interviews (BG E loves being on TV, btw, I call him the rock star), after touring around Central City (where most of the Shia population in the AO lives, and was prior to last May a hot spot) we came back to the HQs where everything was really calm and quiet. Of course Saedi was on pins and needles, hoping that everything would go right and the insurgents wouldn't sneak one by his boys, but everything was ok. The prime minister lifted the vehicle movement ban so more voters could get to the polls, and extended the voting window for one one hour so more folks could vote. After 1800, with no incidents, the only thing left to do was get the ballots back to Bagdhad, which happened this morning at 1130.
Victory picture:
LTC M, my coalition counterpart and BG E's partner unit commander stopped by at the end of the day. His guys had been out for the past 3 weeks working with the National Police to make sure the sites were secure, helping the units out anyway they could - - combined patrols, even more concertina wire, coaching, teaching and mentoring. There might be a few units better than TF 1-35 Armor, but I can't imagine that. Piece of cake to work with, they love the mission and respect BG E and his BDE as much as we do. Anyway, he stopped off at the end of the day and we took a victory picture, commemorating the great day.
All in all, 66, 724 folks in our AO voted out of about 100,000 eligible voters. 66% voter turnout in a truly landmark election. Take a couple of minutes to read about the election somewhere, it was incredible to be a part of, I was very proud of my team, and to be associated with the NP for this event.
Other notes:
Caprice Classic update - - these things are everywhere. We were out in the sticks (Northern City) and saw a beat down old one, so even out next to nowhere, there are Caprice Classics.
Superbowl Prediction:
Neither the Cardinals or Steelers are on my list of teams to cheer for - - Pittsburgh because they took it to Roger Staubach and the boys in the 70s too many times and the Cardinals (huh, what? did the rest of the NFC just lay down and quit?). I guess if I had to make a pick it would be the Steelers, after they sack Kurt Warner about a million times.
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