Iraqis Getting a Taste of Freedom

History is being made in Iraq. The Iraqis are getting a taste of freedom by being able to cast their votes in an election that will determine the makeup of their new transitional government. Early reports indicate that as many as 72% of registered Iraqi voters turned out to cast their votes. They turned out despite the danger of the insurgents threatening to kill those who participated, and despite the gloomy predictions of those on the left.

Indeed, news accounts indicate that there is a party atmosphere in Iraq – a feeling of jubilation as they get to participate in the democratic process. There were areas of violence, with the sounds of mortar fire and some reports of casualties. None of it has apparently put a damper on the Iraqis’ enthusiasm this election day.

We take for granted in this nation the ability to go to the polls to select our leaders in safety. For us, the greatest danger generally is a chance of being involved in an auto accident while driving to the polls. How many of us would turn out to vote with the threat of death hanging over our heads?

There were of course naysayers regarding the election in Iraq, and not just the militants who make up the insurgency there. Here in the US, some of those who oppose the Bush Administration’s Iraq policy have been doing everything possible to paint as bleak a picture as possible of what is going on there. It isn’t that I have a problem with those who wish to take issue with the President on Iraq – the fact is that my own thoughts regarding our presence there have been at least somewhat ambivalent. The problem I have is with those who go far beyond being critical of the actions there, and instead are reaching a near-mindless cacophony of Bush bashing.

These are the sorts of people like Teddy Kennedy, who wouldn’t find anything positive to say about Bush or Iraq if his life depended on it. Take Kennedy’s remarks just three days before the Iraqi election as an example, “the US military presence has become part of the problem, not part of the solution. No matter how many times the administration denies it, there is no question they misled the nation and led us into a quagmire in Iraq.” Gee Teddy, what a great way to improve morale among both the Iraqis and our men and women deployed there. It isn’t so much what Teddy said – heck, we’re all accustomed to Chappaquiddick Ted spewing garbage such as this; it’s the fact that he went on this rampage just as the Iraqis, hopeful for a new beginning, were getting ready to cast their votes for their new government. Somehow I doubt that these Iraqis think that there is a “quagmire” in their country.

And then there were the words from failed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who said on today’s Meet the Press, that “it is hard to say that something is legitimate when whole portions of the country can't vote and doesn't vote.” - this because of low voter turnout among Sunnis. You know the old saying about how an optimist says the glass is half-full, but a pessimist says it’s half-empty? Kerry evidently fits neither category preferring to instead say, “who stole my damn glass”? In other words, Kerry completely ignored the obvious fact that the Iraqi election is nothing short of miraculous in and of itself. Perhaps Senator Ketchup preferred the “elections” held during the reign of Saddam Hussein, when Iraq’s previous “benevolent” leader received 100% of the vote.

I’m sure that the Iraqis will consider those results more “legitimate” than today’s results.

Frankly, I find the members of the “Bash Bush at any cost” club both tiring and disgusting - especially now, when history is being made in Iraq. Regardless, the Iraqis are not likely to let it rain on their parade. It is their day in the sun, and I for one choose to celebrate with them.

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