With "moderate Ayatollah" al-Sistani flexing his muscle, the Bush/Bremer plan for installing a pliable Iraqi government has been thrown into turmoil. It looks like there probably won't be an Iowa-style caucus (Will Barzani tell his supporters to throw their votes to Chalabi? Will Moqtada Sadr's orange-turbaned "Perfect Gushers" wear out their welcome? Will negative fatwas depress turnout in the Sunni Triangle?) to select Iraq's first post-Saddam government. Fortunately for ardent American admirers of Occupation and Empire, we have a complete guide to controlling the results of an allegedly "free and fair" election in an occupied, defeated enemy nation.
Herewith our 1948 Italian Election Guide:
http://members.aol.com/bblum6/italy1.htm
My personal favorite part? Apparently the CIA thought that personal letters to voters was a good technique:
"A massive letter writing campaign from Americans of Italian extraction to their relatives and friends in Italy -- at first written by individuals in their own words or guided by "sample letters" in newspapers, soon expanded to mass-produced, pre- written, postage-paid form letters, cablegrams...Veteran newsman Howard K. Smith pointed out at the time that 'For an Italian peasant a telegram from anywhere is a wondrous thing; and a cable from the terrestrial paradise of America is not lightly to be disregarded.'"