At 1:52 PM -0500 1/31/05, OpinionJournal wrote: >Happy Days Are Here Again >Yesterday was a great day to be an American, and an even better day to be >an Iraqi. Notwithstanding the best efforts of Osama bin Laden >http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110004957 , Barbara Boxer >http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006177 , Jacques Chirac >http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110002580#friends , Ted Kennedy >http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006224 , Saddam Hussein >http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110002473 and Abu Musab >al-Zarqawi http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006200#islam , >millions of Iraqis cast their first free ballots. The scenes of joyous >Iraqis embracing freedom were as moving as watching Germans dance on the >Berlin Wall 15 years ago--and all the more impressive given that Iraqi >voters faced real physical danger from terrorists seeking a return to >tyranny. A New York Times anecdote from Baghdad tells the story: > >*** QUOTE *** > >Batool Al Musawi hesitated for a single moment. > >The explosions had already begun as she rose from her bed early on Sunday. >One after the other, the mortar shells were falling and bursting around >the city, rattling the windows and shaking the walls. > >For an instant, Ms. Musawi, a 22-year-old physical therapist, thought it >might be too dangerous to go to the polls. > >"And then, hearing those explosions, it occurred to me--the insurgents are >weak, they are afraid of democracy, they are losing," Ms. Musawi said, >standing in the Marjayoon Primary School, her polling place. "So I got my >husband, and I got my parents and we all came out and voted together." > >*** END QUOTE *** > >The Times quotes 80-year-old Rashid Majid: "We have freedom now, we have >human rights, we have democracy. We will invite the insurgents to take >part in our system. If they do, we will welcome them. If they don't, we >will kill them." > >As an antifraud measure, voters dipped their forefingers in indelible >purple ink; the ink-stained finger became the most powerful symbol of the >day. (Pictures here >http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20050130/lthumb.xhs10201302005.iran_iraq_election_xhs102.jpg >and here >http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20050131/lthumb.sge.gfd82.310105030403.photo02.photo.default-380x267.jpg >.) At IraqtheModel.com >http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2005/01/people-have-won.html , one of the >Fadhil brothers offers a beautiful description: > >*** QUOTE *** > >I walked forward to my station, cast my vote and then headed to the box, >where I wanted to stand as long as I could, then I moved to mark my finger >with ink, I dipped it deep as if I was poking the eyes of all the world's >tyrants. > >*** END QUOTE *** > >Brother Ali >http://iraqilibe.blogspot.com/2005/01/im-about-to-go-to-voting-center-to.html >, who now has his own blog, pays tribute to those who made it all possible: > >*** QUOTE *** > >Thanks again for your care and may God bless you all and give you a >hundred times what you have gave Iraq. I know it seems impossible when it >comes to those who lost their beloved ones but I hope they know that their >sacrifices were not in vain and that they gave humanity the most precious >thing a man has, his life. > >*** END QUOTE *** > >WSJ.com >http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB110709536470040284,00.html has >a roundup of Iraqi bloggers' reactions. Reporting from Najaf, the >Washington Post >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49507-2005Jan30.html tells >a story that poignantly contrasts tyranny and freedom: > >*** QUOTE *** > >"My father helped bring this election today," said Farezdak Abdel Nibi, >34, at a whitewashed concrete school building serving as a polling station. > >When Nibi was 20, he and his father were eating breakfast when Iraqi >security officials burst in and took them away, he said. Their arrest came >during a large roundup of Shiites by Hussein's security apparatus. Nibi >and his father, speechless in fear, were taken to a police station. Nibi >said he was held for 15 days. The last time his father was seen alive was >three years later. After that, there was no news about what happened to >him, Nibi said. > >"We kept our hope that he had survived. But when we saw all the mass >graves Saddam had made, I knew that we had lost him," Nibi said. > >"This election is the fruit of every drop of blood that was shed in 1991," >Nibi said, referring to a Shiite uprising following the Persian Gulf War >that was brutally suppressed by Hussein's forces. "I thank my father. He >had three sons who married. None of us had a wedding party, out of respect >for him. Today, we can celebrate. Today, we will have a wedding party." > >*** END QUOTE *** > >The world was watching. Reader Jeff Raleigh writes from the U.S. Embassy >in Kabul, Afghanistan: > >*** QUOTE *** > >For those of us who have been privileged to see the exercise of freedom in >the face of threats, and also view the cost of freedom borne by the men >and women of our Armed Forces here in Afghanistan, or in the U.S. South in >the '60s, today came as no surprise. . . . > >I can almost guarantee you that none of the men and women serving in Iraq >or Afghanistan were surprised by the courage of the Iraqi people today. >They are the ones who each day put their lives on the line for freedom. > >*** END QUOTE *** > >The Iraqi election was an important act of public diplomacy for the U.S., >too, as the New York Times >http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/31/international/middleeast/31press.html?ex=1264827600&en=86cbae9218a22bdf&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland >reports from Amman, Jordan: > >*** QUOTE *** > >Sometime after the first insurgent attack in Iraq on Sunday morning, news >directors at Arab satellite channels and newspaper editors found >themselves facing an altogether new decision. Should they report on the >violence, or continue to cover the elections themselves? > >After nearly two years of providing up-to-the-minute images of explosions >and mayhem, and despite months of predictions of a blood bath on election >day, some news directors said they found the decision surprisingly easy to >make. The violence simply was not the story on Sunday morning; the voting >was. > >*** END QUOTE *** > >It seems like only days ago that people were scoffing at President Bush's >Second Inaugural Address for its naive idealism--and come to think of it, >it was only days ago. But Bush may get his due in Baghdad. The New York >Post http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/39526.htm quotes the Iraqi >capital's new mayor--terrorists assassinated his predecessor early this >month: "We will build a statue for Bush. He is the symbol of freedom."
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