The "Election" Baby

Yesterday’s post was devoted to the glorious demonstration of democracy in Iraq. The outpouring of love from the Iraqi people even included a baby born at a polling place and called the Arabic word for “Election” by the new mother. I could not bear to spoil the mood by reporting on the naysayers who see only bad news in a people liberated from tyranny. Saved it for today.

In the lead-up to the election, Britain’s Tony Blair responded to the cynics by noting that progressives (liberals) used to be in favor of liberty. Now, however, it is the left in America, Europe and around the world who abandoned the men, women and children of Iraq. “That most Democratic Party leaders, union leaders, gay leaders, feminists, professors, editorial writers and news reporters have called for an American withdrawal and labeled this most moral of wars ‘immoral’ is a permanent stain on their reputations.” (Dennis Prager)

So what were the Democratic Party leaders saying about Iraq?

Bill Clinton, on stage with Charlie Rose, in Davos, Switzerland offered a mea culpa from America:

"Most of the terrible things that Saddam Hussein did in the 1980s he did with the full, knowing support of the United States government. Because he wasn't Iran, and Iran was what it was because we got rid of their parliamentary democracy back in the '50s. At least that's my belief. I know it is not popular for an American ever to say anything like this, but I think it is true."

And from the senior bloviator from Mass., Ted Kennedy:

"The best way to demonstrate to the Iraqi people that we have no long-term designs on their country is for the administration to withdraw some troops now" and negotiate further withdrawals.

And this from the junior bloviator, John Kerry on Meet the Press:

"It is hard to say that something is legitimate when whole portions of the country can't vote and doesn't vote. This election is a sort of demarcation point, and what really counts now is the effort to have a legitimate political reconciliation. And it's going to take a massive diplomatic effort and a much more significant outreach to the international community than this administration has been willing to engage in. What the administration does in these next few days will decide the outcome of Iraq. And this is ... the last chance for the president to get it right."

Perhaps the best perspective on Kerry was provided by Jay Leno:
“Yesterday was election day in Iraq, and out of force of habit, John Kerry gave a concession speech.”

And, how have the esteemed journalists reported the election?

Bob Herbert of the New York Times: “Iraqis may have voted yesterday. But they live in occupied territory, and the occupiers have other things on their minds than the basic wishes of the Iraqi people. That's not democracy.” Bob seems to have it backwards. Rather than “but” it is because they live in occupied territory that the Iraqi people were afforded the right to vote. We, the American people made that possible.

And then there was Eason Jordan, Chief News Executive of CNN, at the World Economic Forum titled "Will Democracy Survive the Media?" During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience.

There is so much to choose from, but I’ll close with Thomas Oliphant of the Boston Globe: “The biggest threat to the new legitimately elected political leadership in Iraq is the very force that did so much to make it possible -- the American military.”

So the journalists think we are occupiers, the biggest threat and killers of journalists. If only these guys were on the hit list.

But there is hope. Liberals who are honest and care more about human rights than political power should follow the advice of liberal columnist Mark Brown in the Chicago Sun Times. “After watching Sunday's election in Iraq and seeing the first clear sign that freedom really may mean something to the Iraqi people, you have to be asking yourself: What if it turns out Bush was right, and we were wrong? It's hard to swallow, isn't it? I think we have to face the possibility.”

“I won't say that it had never occurred to me previously, but it's never gone through my mind as strongly as when I watched the television coverage from Iraq that showed long lines of people risking their lives by turning out to vote, honest looks of joy on so many of their faces.”

“If it turns out Bush was right all along, this is going to require some serious penance.”

Amen!