JUST ADD VOTERS:

It's all go for Iraq's vote (Associated Press, January 22, 2005)

Millions of ballots have been printed, thousands of voting booths assembled and 300,000 Iraqi and American troops put at the ready. Everything is in place for Iraq's national elections. All that's needed now are voters.

Participation is the crucial question in next Sunday's parliamentary election, which the insurgents, mostly Sunni Arabs, have vowed to disrupt. Substantial Sunni turnout in the face of intimidation and murder could spell the beginning of the end of the rebellion and hasten the day when America can bring home its 150,000 troops.

But if the vast majority of Sunnis shun the polls - either out of fear or lack of confidence in the process - it would undercut the new government's legitimacy, widen the fault line between Sunnis and the majority Shiites and possibly doom the American military to years of struggle against a determined foe.