Looking through a collection of anecdotal stories from the Associated Press, the following statements from Iraqi voters jump out at me:
“Am I scared? Or course I’m not scared. This is my country,” said 50-year-old Fathiya Mohammed, heading to a nearby polling station alone, but moving quickly.
In the “triangle of death,” where voting is a life-threatening experience, Karfia Abbasi held up her ink-stained finger, elated that for the first time she has been able to cast a ballot for someone besides Saddam Hussein.
“This is democracy,” Abbasi said. “This is the first day I feel freedom.”
Crowds burst into impromptu demonstrations, shouting, “No to dictatorship. Yes to democracy,” and “Long live freedom.”
Abed Hunni, a stooped, whiskered man walked an hour with his wife to reach a polling site in Musayyib. “God is generous to give us this day,” he said.
Well, maybe God, but most assuredly the militaries of the Americans and their allies. And, of course, the Iraqis’ own security forces, slowly growing in size, proficiency and confidence.
Speaking of those Iraqi forces, repeatedly slammed in the media for their unwillingness to fight, what was their performance?
“It has been a long and hard assignment for me,” said policeman Abbas Saedi, a veteran of 23 years in the force who earns $190 a month.
“We fought terrorists who took shelter in a cemetery behind the polling center, we captured some and found weapons hidden in graves. It was all worth it. This is great.”
Eight suicide bombers unleashed blasts throughout the day, killing themselves and at least 19 other people. An Iraqi policeman who spotted one of the attackers approaching a polling site leapt on the man as the blast ripped them both apart.
Please realize that the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam (ARVN) carried the same reputation of cowardice and low regard. Thanks to the media, this reputation lasted until the end of the ARVN and the fall of South Viet Nam, despite the fact that ARVN units had become equal to or superior to their North Vietnamese counterparts for years (with the exception of external support, which disappointedly shriveled to nothingness for the ARVN in the post-Watergate days). Hopefully, history and the leftists’ propaganda success will not repeat for the improving Iraqi forces.
What does this election mean going forward? Eric at Eric’s Random Musings muses at length about this, examining the impact on the American Left and the future of Iraq and American involvement.
It’s too late to go back. The Left in the United States is focused on what was, which can’t be changed. Regardless of the reality of Iraqi nuclear weapons programs, chemical weapons stockpiles, support for terrorism or lack thereof what’s done is done. It’s time to go forward the best way possible. And abandoning the Iraqis (the Left’s cherished “exit strategy” [From Gunner: I’ve blogged in the past about my view on this pathetic phrase]) is absolutely the wrong path forward. What we need is a strategy to win. Winning means defeating the Ba’athist insurgents, marginalizing the al-Qaeda terrorists (and yes, they are two different groups, although they have similar goals and appear to work together), giving the Iraqi’s some room to establish a workable government and then slowly transitioning the security of the country to the Iraqi government.
Are matters settled in Iraq? Of course not. From this vote, a slate of representatives will step forth to help shape a future Iraqi government, a government that will have a long row to hoe. However, two things must be noted. First, the so-called insurgency of terrorists and Saddamists does not have the strength it claimed. Second, and perhaps most important for the nation of Iraq, is that the Iraqi people can embrace the following feeling:
And in heavily Shiite areas in the far south and mostly Kurdish regions in the north, some saw the vote as settling a score with the former dictator, Saddam.
“Now I feel that Saddam is really gone,” said Fatima Ibrahim, smiling as she headed home after voting in Irbil. She was 14 and a bride of just three months when her husband, father and brother were rounded up in a campaign of ethnic cleansing under Saddam. None have ever been found.
Closure. And a new beginning.
Comments
One response to “Iraqi Elections: Some Notes and Quotes”
Nicely said Gunner, thanks much for the mention. I was hoping to say, in a clear and coherent fashion, some of the things I have been thinking for a while. The paragraph you captured is, in my eyes, one of the most important in the whole post. I wonder if the Left realizes that their option is to move forward or be sidelined, probably for good?