Iraq on the Road to Democracy
Amir Taheri

An election that was not supposed to happen because terrorists and insurgents in Iraq, and their sympathizers in the West, did not want it has produced results that the doomsters that fought to prevent it did not expect.

First, the massive boycott of the polls, predicted by Saddam nostalgics and other members of the Hate-America coalition, did not take place. Last month almost two-thirds of Iraqi voters went to the polls in the first free election in their history.

Now, the final results, announced Sunday, show that the doomsters were wrong a second time.

Lots of things that the opponents of the liberation of Iraq had prayed for did not happen.

Amir Taheri gets it absolutely right again. It’d really be wonderful if some of the Western op-ed writers would read what he has to say, even some of those whose columns end up in the Arab News.

At this point in history, it’s irrelevant how we got here. The only relevant issue is whether or not we are interested in helping the Iraqi people create their own stable democracy.

The American electorate had a chance to vote on whether they thought they were misled by George Bush on Iraq. Their vote supported the President. The Iraqis’ vote supported the President.

Now, to thwart the will of the Iraqis because Bush forced the issue is not punishing Bush. It’s punishing the Iraqis.

History, as always, will have the final say on whether or not a President did a good job or not. History’s judgement of Bush, though, is not going to be influenced by impeding the Iraqis in their own quest.