I swear. You really have to search - and I mean really search - to find any story on yesterday's historic Parliamentary elections in Afghanistan.

Afghan voters had a 50% turnout, there was no major violence reported and women were pulling off their burqas at the polling stations in celebration. While former Taliban thugs threatened to disrupt the election, the day was a peaceful one.

What patrolling Canadian soldiers witnessed instead on Sunday was a virtual national holiday. Afghans casually strolled down the streets of their two major cities after all non-essential traffic was ordered off the road, on their way to do something they thought would ensure a brighter future -- vote.

"Everyone is so happy. It's like we are waiting for Christmas to come," said Abdullah Shahood, a 22-year-old poll observer for candidate Abdul Razziq.

"Everyone is optimistic."

Hmmm. Now why would the U.S. media be ignoring something so significant? Oh yeah, I forgot. They're too busy covering the big anti-Bush speech that Bill Clinton made yesterday. What the hell was I thinking?

Posted by: Gary at 02:28 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 199 words, total size 1 kb.