Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Democracy Rules the day!

I'm sorry I am so far behind on this. But this past weekend were the Iraqi elections. And they were a huge success. Over 8 million people defied the terrorists and came out to vote. This is a significantly higher number than the %57 expected. The results won't be in for a little over a week but at this point it really doesn't matter a lot who won. The Iraqi people are the real winners. They have tasted democracy and they like it
The true Iraqi patriots are those who risked their lives to vote, apparently in much larger numbers than anticipated. "I would have crawled here if I had to," 32-year-old Samir Hassan, who lost a leg in a car-bomb blast last year, told Reuters. "I don't want terrorists to kill other Iraqis like they tried to kill me." Yesterday's coverage on TV and in print was full of similar comments from Iraqis--which is especially notable since so much of the Western press has been anticipating a much worse outcome. (See today's Wall Street Journal for an Iraqi blogger's eye-witness account.)

The early estimate of a 72% turnout made by Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission was later reduced to a little more than 60%, or about eight million of the nearly 14 million registered voters. That would still put turnout at roughly the same as America's vote last November, which was the highest in the U.S. since 1968 and took place without any risk of being shot by a sniper or blown up by a car bomb. Another quarter of a million Iraqi exiles also voted, or 90% of those who registered.
Iraqi's interim President Ayd Allawi called for unity following the elections saying "Terrorists were defeated".

This post over at Iraq The Model literally brought tears to my eyes. Reading about oppressed people experiencing the pride of patriotism for the first time is really moving:
How can I describe it!? Take my eyes and look through them my friends, you have supported the day of Iraq's freedom and today, Iraqis have proven that they're not going to disappoint their country or their friends.

Is there a bigger victory than this? I believe not.

I still recall the first group of comments that came to this blog 14 months ago when many of the readers asked "The Model?"… "Model for what?"
Take a look today to meet the model of courage and human desire to achieve freedom; people walking across the fire to cast their votes.

Could any model match this one!? Could any bravery match the Iraqis'!?
Let the remaining tyrants of the world learn the lesson from this day.
Imagine the feeling you get when you hear Stars And Stripes Forever on the 4th of July right before the fireworks start. Imagine that for years before you had no freedom to take pride in and could be shot for suggesting such things. Their post from Monday called The Day After is inspiring as well. Chrenkoff's Good News From Iraq. is a must read too.

And not surprisingly we've heard very little from our critics on the left:
Skeptics of President Bush's attempt to bring democracy to Iraq have been largely silent since Iraqis enthusiastically turned out for Sunday's elections.
Billionaire Bush-basher George Soros and left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore were among critics of the administration's Iraq policy who had no comment after millions of Iraqis went to the polls in their nation's first free elections in decades.
But obviously they will be whining again soon. Probably about an "exit strategy" or a date to bring troops home.

But here is something I did not expect to see, a logicaly thinking democrat willing to admit a success. Amazing!