Given that the alternative to passing the Constitution is to elect a new set of delegates to spend another year making more compromises to the Sunnis (i.e. coming up with a Constitution that sacrifices the good of Kurds and Shiites at the expense of those who oppressed them for decades) ……

And, remember that we’re talking about cultures without the (perhaps uniquely American) idea of the nobility of dissent. When your whole community is headed to the polls for a vote they perceive as being about strengthening theirown community… I would guess that most Kurds saw a vote on a Federalist Constitution as essentially a vote on whether or not there ought to be an independent Kurdistan within Iraq, as opposed to no Kurdistan at all — of course they supported this overwhelmingly. An independent Kurdistan separate from Iraq wasn’t represented on the ballot.

This isn’t like a referrendum on Roe v Wade in San Francisco (which would probably turn out with 90-95% support) it’s more like a referendum on whether the Red Sox should move to Omaha. Anyone think that would get more than 1% in Boston? Or anywhere in New England?

I’m inclined to cut the Iraqis some slack – at least they are moving towards a democracy, albeit in fits and starts –

The results in the Kurdish and Shiite regions of Iraq were never at issue — it was always pretty much assured that those regions would support the new Constitution. Committing fraud to push the “yes” total up a few percentage points makes about as much sense as Kerry stuffing ballots in New York, Massachusettes and California to win the 2004 election.