The first sentence of a Reuters report today reads "Millions of Iraqis turned out to vote Sunday, defying anti-U.S. insurgents determined to drown the historic poll in blood." But if the "insurgents" were merely "anti-US" what would Iraqi voters have to be concerned about? Why would voting defy the insurgents, after all it's Iraqi's who are voting not US citizens. The fact is the anti-Democratic forces the Iraqis defied were anti-Iraqi terrorists, in addition to being anti US. There were attacks mounted by terrorists and Zarqawi claimed responsibility for all of them. But the fact that upwards of 70% came out to vote in spite of this demonstrates the impotence of the anti-Democracy "movement" while at the same time affirming the Presidents belief that the power of freedom is more compelling than the promise of safety through fascism. By voting in the face of fear the Iraqis have bought what we could never give them: hope for the future and taking claim of their own destiny. For though our brave soldiers could stand up and be willing to fight and die for the ideal of freedom for others, the Iraqi people had to take what was given and make it their own. And they did.
The struggle for political freedom is ever thus. People standing up en masse to the forces that would rule and smother their lives and taking back control of their future regardless of the cost. And for those who say that Iraqis came by this too easily, that it was America who paid the price not the Iraqis, I simply point to all of the Iraqi civilians, politicians, policeman and soldiers who died at the hands of the terrorist sociopaths. Yet still they kept coming. Thousands volunteered for positions in the police force and the military despite being killed by suicide bombers. Millions came to vote despite threats of death by terrorists. And one thing that must be obvious even to the terroists blinded by ideology and crving more blood, they would need to kill 80% of the population to get what they want. Millions stand in the way of mere thousands.
The terrorists likely will attempt retaliation, but the old barn door is open and that mare is gone, baby. The vote has happened. A council has been elected by the Iraqi people and the only ones disenfranchised are the terrorist-fascists. Too bad, so sad. MoveOn. You lose.
Reversing earlier predictions, the tune of the Conservative Left is already adapting to the new reality. To them, there can be no victory: it was impossible for Bush or the Iraqi people to win. Even if Saddam was let out of jail, replaced as dictator and the US withdrew, Bush would be wrong. If Bush followed the prescription of Senator Kennedy and withdrew all of our troops tomorrow, they would eventually say we abandoned Iraq like we did Afghanistan after the defeat of the Soviets. Since there is no way to satisfy them, they are irrelevent to the discussion and real people have long ago stopped treating them as if they were adults.
Update: New information revises the election participation estimate down to a bit over 60% mostly due to lower than originally estimated turnout in Sunni areas. This is still better than the majority of elections in the US. Ironically, as I write this, the DemocraticUnderground is completely silent about the budding Democracy in Iraq. I guess they are so underground that they missed the emergence of a Democracy.
The separatist Free Aceh Movement in Indonesia has dropped its demand for full autonomy in exchance for greater self-determination within the Indonesian political process. Combined with the report yesterday that the first order of business was relief efforts makes me believe that these are reasonable people looking to actually resolve problems not simply cause them.
In Britain, the government defends its homeland security proposals.
Israel is giving peace a chance and offering to withdraw its troops from the West Bank. Palestinian police will take over security there.
An Iraqi arrested in Germany on suspicion of plotting an al Qaeda suicide attack in Iraq said he was sent on his mission by Osama bin Laden himself
A spherical roving robot designed to detect and report intruders has been developed by a Swedish start-up company.
Introducing the fantasy coffin makers of Ghana.
