The hallmark of fair elections....

Nothing says free and fair elections like an occupying army conducting "operations" in an area that is likely not to vote the way they want. I'm sure all the young Sunni men in western Iraq will feel perfectly free to walk down the streets to cast their votes.

A series of U.S. military strikes in western Iraq will continue at least until December to try to stop insurgents entering from Syria before a general election, the top U.S. army spokesman in Iraq said on Thursday.

"We're going to fight our way to the referendum, and we're going to fight our way to the election," Major General Rick Lynch told a news conference, referring to an October 15 referendum on a new Iraqi constitution and the December parliamentary vote.

U.S. forces launched a wave of assaults in Iraq's Euphrates valley in late September, with new operations getting under way in October.

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