Can Iraq's Election Be Saved?

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With time running short and many Iraqis afraid to vote, the U.S. is scrambling to shore up security in critical areas. In the so-called Sunni triangle, Pentagon officials say, U.S. and Iraqi forces conduct about 1,000 foot patrols every day. "We are definitely on the offensive," says a Pentagon official. In Baghdad the 1st Cavalry Division has brought in two battalions from the ??lite 82nd Airborne and extended the rotation of its own 2nd Brigade, adding about 5,000 troops. On election day, the job of providing security at 5,900 polling stations nationwide will fall mainly to the Iraqis--150,000 U.S. forces will try to fade into the background as much as possible. There are 7,600 Iraqi troops and 18,000 policemen in the capital alone, though a U.S. military official says at least 7,000 more police might be needed. The Allawi government is considering even more extreme measures to tighten security across the country as election day draws closer. The government has drawn up plans for a dusk-to-dawn curfew and a restriction on travel starting three days before the election, including a total ban on car traffic in major cities, which means voters will have to walk to polling stations. And since insurgents often set off roadside bombs with cell phones, cell service may be shut down on election day.

Throughout Iraq, the hopeful anticipation of the coming exercise in democracy is tempered by an ever present dread. On patrol in Mosul last week, Pangelinan's unit stopped in front of an old man's house. As Americans handed out candy to neighborhood children, Pangelinan asked the Iraqi how he thought the election would go. "Hopefully it will succeed in Mosul," the man said. Pangelinan responded, "I know it will." A few minutes later, after Pangelinan and his men had moved on, a car bomb detonated in the distance, sending a halo of white smoke into the air. --With reporting by Charles Crain/ Mosul, Aparisim Ghosh/Baghdad, Helen Gibson/ London and Elaine Shannon and Douglas Waller/ Washington