Iraqi Election Results

The constitution referendum will pass, but there are signs that all is not well with Iraq's fledging democracy.

"'The statistics that we have show that 95% of the Sunni Arabs said no,' said Saleh Mutlak, a spokesman for the National Dialogue Council, an Arab nationalist political group. 'If 95% of a segment of the population can't stop the constitution, then who can?'"

Well, what will the effect be on the Sunni insurgents?

"'Now that Sunni Arabs probably have failed to vote down a draft constitution that they view as a Shiite-Kurdish-American document, the insurgency may well gain more strength and will surely retain enough strength to carry on strongly,' he [Wayne White, a former U.S. intelligence official who is now a scholar at the Middle East Institute] said."

Another expert:

"'This thing is an enormous fiasco,' said Juan Cole, a University of Michigan historian and a specialist on Shiite Islam. He said having such a solid bloc in opposition to the constitution 'really undermines its legitimacy, and this result guarantees the guerrilla war will go on.'"