Do my eyes deceive me, or is the New York Times admitting that yesterday’s historic vote in Iraq was a positive event? The participation of Iraq’s Sunni minority in the democratic process has been an issue continually harped on by pundits. Many Sunnis boycotted last January’s election, but yesterday staged a huge turnout, even in insurgent bastions. From the Times:

Still, there was enough that was different in Thursday’s election to suggest that something significant had changed. This time, Sunni political groups with links to the insurgency had candidates in the election. Their leaders, as well as influential Sunni clerics in the mosques of Baghdad and other cities and towns across the Sunni heartland, had urged Sunnis to vote in large numbers. Insurgent groups with links to Mr. Hussein’s ruling Baath Party had agreed to hold their fire.

Adhamiya was as good a proving ground as any for the new Sunni openness to political involvement. In the 1950’s, the district was a bastion of the Arab nationalism then sweeping the Middle East, and it was along Adhamiya’s alleyways that the Baath party in Iraq had its first underground stirrings.

It was in Adhamiya, too, that Mr. Hussein made his last stand as American troops entered Baghdad in April 2003, standing atop a car roof outside the Abu Hanifa mosque and pledging to lead Iraqis in resisting the Americans, before disappearing from view. It was eight months before he turned up again, caught by American troops hiding in an underground bunker near Tikrit.

Mr. Hussein, now languishing in an American military prison near Baghdad’s airport, would have found little comfort in Adhamiya. At his trial, he has proclaimed himself Iraq’s legitimate ruler, but the voters Thursday scoffed at his delusion.

“Saddam, he’s finished,” said Mr. Saleh, the government employee.

“Saddam? No, no, no!” said Saad Abdul Sattar, a 51-year-old grocery store owner, with a sweep of his upturned palm.