Iraq's election and beyond

Robert Dreyfuss and William Rivers Pitt look beyond the heartening images of smiling Iraqis with purple index fingers and don't like what they see on the horizon.

As much as the media and war cheerleaders try to spin yesterday's election as yet another "turn of the corner" for the better, the simple fact is that virtually every indicator suggests the election is going to precipitate the dissolution of Iraq's fragile federal system, with ominous, untold consequences at this point.

If this doesn't happen, excellent. I'd rather not see more Iraqis crushed to death as a consequence of US policy. But optimism is hard to muster at this point, no matter how well things seemingly went.