Today was a great day for the Iraqi people. Their voting went much better than expected, although not without sacrifice -- a fact that marks their courage and achievement as even greater.
Iraqis defied violence and calls for a boycott to cast ballots in Iraq's first free election in a half-century Sunday. Insurgents seeking to wreck the vote struck polling stations with a string of suicide bombings and mortar volleys, killing at least 44 people, including nine attackers.Women in black abayas whispered prayers at the sound of a nearby explosion as they waited to vote at one Baghdad polling station. But the mood for many was upbeat: Civilians and policemen danced with joy at one of the five polling stations where photographers were allowed, and some streets were packed with voters walking shoulder-to-shoulder to vote. The elderly made their way, hobbling on canes or riding wheelchairs; one elderly woman was pushed along on a wooden cart, another man carried a disabled 80-year-old on his back.
"This is democracy," said Karfia Abbasi, holding up a thumb stained with purple ink to prove she had voted.
Officials said turnout among the 14 million eligible voters appeared higher than the 57 percent that had been predicted, although it would be some time before any turnout figure was confirmed.
Note how the Associated Press reporter in the story cited above includes the dead suicide bombers in the casualty figure for the day in an attempt to pump up the negative.
President Bush made a statement, including this:
The Iraqi people, themselves, made this election a resounding success. Brave patriots stepped forward as candidates. Many citizens volunteered as poll workers. More than 100,000 Iraqi security force personnel guarded polling places and conducted operations against terrorist groups. One news account told of a voter who had lost a leg in a terror attack last year, and went to the polls today, despite threats of violence. He said, "I would have crawled here if I had to. I don't want terrorists to kill other Iraqis like they tried to kill me. Today I am voting for peace."Across Iraq today, men and women have taken rightful control of their country's destiny, and they have chosen a future of freedom and peace.
We weren't the only ones watching.
The Arab world is anything but indifferent to Sunday's polling in Iraq, which has dual implications for the restive region. It will almost certainly bring to power Iraq's long-suppressed Shiite Muslims, boosting the sect's influence in this Sunni Muslim-dominated area. It also will mean Washington has succeeded in bringing democracy to Iraq by force — at least for the moment — a precedent that could shake up the autocratic Arab world."Arab governments may not say it, but they don't want Iraq's democratic experiment to succeed," said Turki al-Hamad, a prominent Saudi columnist and former political science professor. "Such a success would embarrass them and present them with the dilemma of either changing or being changed."
The blogosphere is in fine form today covering the election, and the Day by Day cartoon for Jan. 30 is getting lots of well-deserved exposure. A picture really is worth a thousand words.
Visit Friends of Democracy for first-hand reporting from Iraq.
Posted by Alan at January 30, 2005 02:11 PM