Victory For Democracy

They said this day could never come, that you can't spread freedom and democracy in a region that is culturally prohibited from being free. They said the violence will simply be too much, that average Iraqis will be intimidated into cowering in their homes by the terrorist thugs that are at war with democracy. They said that President Bush and the neo-cons were out of touch with reality for believing in an idea so radical as spreading democracy in the Middle-East. They said all these things, and in every way possible they were wrong, stuck once again on the wrong side of history.

They are the liberal establishment, who refused to believe in the power of democracy. Stuck in the cynic stupor of their own condescension, they continue to under-estimate man's desire to be free, incapable of comprehending the great lengths a man thirsting for freedom will go. They see the shots of smiling Iraqis hugging each other and dancing in the streets, and they are unable to do anything but sneer, claiming that no one should "overhype" the momentousness of this election, as if it is possible to "overhype" such a day. Let them continue to wallow in their own defeatism, for it is not their actions that will go down in history, but the radical idealists who risked everything to bring freedom to a land fraught with oppression.

Though many perils still lie ahead, the courageous actions taken by Iraqis today have marked the beginning of the end for terrorism in that country. Zarqawi and his fellow thugs gave everything they had to stop democracy, and still it wasn't enough. It's as if the Iraqis took all the threats and intimidation from Zarqawi and simply gave him the finger in response, refusing to let him or those who enable him to hold their country back.

The election in Iraq today is not just a victory for Iraqis, but for democracy worldwide. Though evil is real, courage and freedom always triumph, and those who fight to spread it will be rewarded by history. There will still be attempts to undo what has been accomplished, but emboldened by freedom we can confidently say BRING IT ON!

UPDATE (Saturday, February 5, 9:25 A.M.): As is always the case, Victor Davis Hanson sums up the left's false predictions here. He also dives into the American and European liberal establishment, summarizing things up with this point: "Red America is to Blue America as America is to Europe itself." That just about says it all really.