This Sunday marks an historic event of the 21st century as the people of a liberated Iraq vote to elect their own interim government to draft a new constitution and set the future direction their nation will take. The truth is that this event is not only historic; it is precedence setting in a way that only history can show.
A democratic Iraq, whatever form that democracy might take, represents the first glimmer of the hope of liberty for a region mired in despotism and tyranny for more than half a century. With the completion of elections in Iraq, whatever their ultimate result, the democratic forces in all of Iraq’s neighbors cannot help but be emboldened to act to bring democracy to their own countries.
There has been much talk in the media and among so-called experts around the world about the potential ‘failure’ in Iraq because of the tenuous security situation leading up to this election. The truth is that such talk fails to understand a basic fact about what has happened in Iraq since 2003: no revolution, whether internal or external is ever clean or clear-cut, but the reality is that revolution has come to Southwest Asia, and the freedom that revolution brings cannot be stopped.
The test for both Iraq and the United States and its allies on Sunday will be one of will. Once unleashed, freedom will come to Iraq; the question is what alliances that freedom might bring. If Iraq and the US stand firm, then they will form an historic trust that will be a beacon for the oppressed peoples of the world. If either of them fails, then freedom will come on the wings of chaos, and who knows what outcome that reality might bring.
Whatever the popular notions on the current situation in Iraq might be, the truth is that the US’s actions there are good and just. Sometimes the actions of a dedicated minority are the ones that are righteous in the face of popular dissent. That fact was true in 1775 and 1861, and it is just as true in 2005.
Sunday we will see the birth of a new nation in the face of a world that did not believe such a thing to be possible, and from that birth will come a future that such detractors cannot imagine. Freedom will succeed whether they like it or not.
DLK 20050128
