…and they danced in the streets.
I’ve been watching the coverage of the Iraqi elections today, on and off for about twenty hours. I can’t quite find a single word to describe my feelings, as I am overwhelmed by the magnitude of this event. If I had to use just one word, I guess you could say I was moved. I don’t even know if I was this moved by our own elections. Sure, our election night was a nail biter and I watched with great interest, but this, this is different. Very different.
Since 9-11, there has been a single nagging fear which took up residence in the back of my mind. I felt confident that the US and her allies would certainly fight with earnest to right the wrongs done to our countrymen that day, but I wasn’t 100% positive that the democratization-of-an-Arab-country part of the plan could possibly work out so well. Without doubt, I knew our military forces would do their jobs well, and they have, but inasmuch as we can dispose of a despotic regime, there seemed no guarantee that the people over there would be willing to replace a dictatorship with democracy.
I don’t know where or when that feeling of doubt took hold, but it was definitely a possibility, however remote. Maybe it was the eggheads of academia that repeatedly told us that Islam and Democracy could not co-exist. Maybe it was the non-stop nay-saying from so many people that sometimes made me feel like I might be the last person standing who wanted to see this thing through. Maybe it was the main stream media from across the globe who seem to revel in every bad thing that happened over there. Maybe it was the conspicuous lack of a single left wing pundit outwardly hoping that the elections would actually happen, let alone be such a success. Maybe it was a combination of all of those factors. The truth is, under the weight of all that negativity, I was really crossing my fingers today.
I realize that to some folks, the 44 deaths in Iraq as a result of terrorism is a sign that the battle isn’t over, but I think the way the Iraqi people took to the ideal of self determination gives me hope that we may indeed have already won the war. No, not the war for 100% security in Iraq, or the war to erradicate 100% of terrorism around the globe, but in fact the bigger war of freedom versus oppression. For the first time in decades, the dominoes may indeed be falling the other direction, and that idea gives me occasion to take the first deep breath I feel I’ve drawn for over three years.
Freedom is an instinct. People can not help but yearn to be free, although the will to do something about it can be bludgeoned out of them. The Iraqi people showed us today that the moment Saddam’s thirty years of whipping came to an abrupt halt, the will to try to be free returned, as it always does when one is given hope through liberation.
I believe that as Americans we owe the Iraqi people a debt of gratitude for thier bravery today, as their actions in the face of grave danger only serves to reaffirm our beliefs in a free and Democratic existence. They proved us right. The fact that thousands of Iraqis from the town of Abu Grahib walked thirteen miles today to vote stands as a testament to the idea that the human spirit and will to be free is stronger than any fear of resprisal, and those people knew that if they did die, their deaths would stand for something. Those voters today, THEY are the revolutionaries.
I’m certain there will be criticisms from around the world today. They say our credibilty with many countries is not what it used to be. However, I’d like to think that among those folks who used to really hate us, (and were obviously willing to do something about it), our credibility rating edged up a few notches today. We said we wanted to bring Democracy to the people of Iraq, and we kept that promise, disproving the notion that we were nothing more than a bunch of oil theives.
George Bush and his administration made mistakes concerning Iraq. Those weapons stockpiles were neither huge nor abundant, but they were certainly right about one thing, given the chance to vote, the Iraqi people would seize the opportunity with great conviction.
I’ll concede that there may be tough days ahead, and the resistance is still a force to be reckoned with, not for what they are capable of doing, but what they are willing to do. But if the jubilant celebrations are any indicator of how the Iraqi people intend to embrace their new democracy, I feel like today we have surely turned the corner. I can say that with all the confidence in the world because I know from experience, once you have experienced freedom and Democracy, you will never submit to relenquishing it without a serious fight.
It’s not that my hope for freedom for the Iraqi people ever wavered, but the sight of countless blue ink-stained fingers raised to the sky in Iraq today has reaffirmed my beilef that this mission is a just one, and that in the long run we have not only helped the Iraqi People, but we have also helped save ourselves.
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