That's the headline of this Washington Times article.

The news is full of stories about how the turnout was high and the elections were a success. This despite the large number of people who died in violent incidents, as well as the apparent shooting down of a British military transport plane.

But as Michel Chossudovsky points out, reports of the election turnout don't seem to be based on anything concrete (as indeed they really can't be, given that most foreign journalists and even election monitors don't actually dare to go out of their hotels, and in some cases aren't even in the country at all).

Now obviously many Iraqis when given the choice between voting and not voting may have decided that it's worth giving voting a go on the principle that it might make things better and can't make things worse, but lets not kid ourselves: the purpose of the election and the current spin being put on news about it is to legitimise the occupation of the country and the confiscation of its assets, and to try to make us forget the deceptions and lies that brought us to the present situation.

See also:
Robert Fisk's article "Hotel Room Journalism"
Kurt Nimmo's article on the election coverage.