Up All Night

I was up very late watching the Iraqi elections.

Perhaps the most interesting piece I saw - for a couple hours, on Fox - was Geraldo Rivera, standing on the roof of a building in Baghdad that was apparently a lookout post and strongpoint used by guys from the First Cavalry Division. Rivera was surrounded by GIs, most of whose attention was focused on the city around them. The camera provided the definitive tableau of the evening; below, people streaming through the streets; above, Apaches circling like carnivorous dragonflies, looking for prey.

Rivera was effusive, almost over the edge with apparent emotion about the scene below, watching people below streaming through the vehicle-free streets, some waving Iraqi flags) and playing video of joyous voters lining up and casting ballots. At times, he professed to be on the verge of tearing up - Rivera's past makes me, perhaps unfortunately, cynical about such professions, and yet I felt the same, watching the footage of people standing in line, holding their kids, as Iraqi cops searched them for weapons, grinning from ear to ear as they left the polls, dancing and clapping and giving thumbs-up signs to the cameras

Rivera's effusion led to the funniest moment of the night. There was an explosion in the middle distance, as he was in the midst of praising the election, the process, the voters. Rivera, not skipping a beat: "There was an explosion - but that's not the focus here today...", he said, returning to topic. Around him, the First Cav GIs moved to the parapet, and scanned the city intently, and the expression on one grunt's face said "the HELL it's not the focus, reporter-boy...

Rivera also said "this is like the fall of the Berlin Wall" - and on that point, he was right. The fall of the Wall was just the beginning, and so is this election. It was the beginning of a tough stretch - but nobody would take it back. [UPDATE: Almost nobody]

As I write this, the reports read that there were over 40 dead yesterday, all Iraqis, mostly cops and soldiers and the eight homicide bombers. May G-d bless the Iraqi people, especially democracy's martyrs; for the other eight, I hope he has other plans.

UPDATE: Johnny Dollar has the transcript of some of Rivera's report, via Deacon at Powerline.