The current plan in Iraq is to hold "partial elections", that is the election will only be held in parts of Iraq under tight US control. Neither the White House nor the current Iraqi government can risk any delays in the election, thus it will be held in some form no matter what happens. Needless to say, if more then a small part of Iraq isn't under US control it makes a total farce of the election.

Of course the election was not going to be really open or free anyway since the slate of people up for election was selected by the current US backed government.

Jay