U.S. commander expects troubled Iraqi election

WASHINGTON -- The top U.S. military commander for Iraq said Sunday he expected flawed elections and much violence ahead of the voting scheduled for January.\nGen. John Abizaid's assessment followed a week in which President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi spoke optimistically about the situation despite the beheadings of two more Americans and the deaths of dozens of people in car bombings. Friday, the military said four Marines died in separate incidents, adding to a toll that has topped 1,000 since the U.S.-led invasion.\nAbizaid, commander of U.S. troops in the Middle East, said the elections will be carried out. But he warned that voting may not be possible in parts of Iraq where the violence is too intense.\n"I don't think we'll ever achieve perfection and when we look for perfection in a combat zone we're going to be sadly disappointed," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."\nAbizaid compared the situation in Iraq to the disputed U.S. presidential election in 2000 that put Bush in the White House following a protracted fight that ended up in the Supreme Court.\n"I don't think Iraq will have a perfect election. And if I recall, looking back at our own election four years ago, it wasn't perfect either," he said.\nHe said the goal is to have successful voting in the "vast majority of the country."\n"We're going to have to fight our way all the way through elections," he said, "and there'll be a lot of violence between now and then."\nHe spoke of a major offensive before the election, with U.S. and Iraqi forces doing "whatever's necessary to bring areas in Iraq under Iraqi control."\nSecretary of State Colin Powell offered a road map to the coming offensive. He said the military likely will tackle the Sunni Triangle cities of Ramadi and Samarra before attempting to restore order in nearby Fallujah, which Powell called "the tough one."\n"We don't like the situation in Fallujah," he said on CNN's "Late Edition."\n"The other ones, I think, are more manageable. Ramadi and Samarra, I think we'll get those back under control, and then we'll have to deal with Fallujah," Powell said.\nAlso Sunday, Powell said the insurgency was becoming more violent as elections near.\n"It's getting worse," he said on ABC's "This Week." "They are determined to disrupt the election. They do not want the Iraqi people to vote for their own leaders in a free, democratic election"