Elections

Yesterday was a great day to be an American, and an even better day to be an Iraqi. Notwithstanding the best efforts of Osama bin Laden http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110004957 , Barbara Boxer http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006177 , Jacques Chirac http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110002580#friends , Ted Kennedy http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006224 , Saddam Hussein http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110002473 and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006200#islam , millions of Iraqis cast their first free ballots. The scenes of joyous Iraqis embracing freedom were as moving as watching Germans dance on the Berlin Wall 15 years ago--and all the more impressive given that Iraqi voters faced real physical danger from terrorists seeking a return to tyranny. A New York Times anecdote from Baghdad tells the story:

Batool Al Musawi hesitated for a single moment.
The explosions had already begun as she rose from her bed early on Sunday. One after the other, the mortar shells were falling and bursting around the city, rattling the windows and shaking the walls.
For an instant, Ms. Musawi, a 22-year-old physical therapist, thought it might be too dangerous to go to the polls.
"And then, hearing those explosions, it occurred to me--the insurgents are weak, they are afraid of democracy, they are losing," Ms. Musawi said, standing in the Marjayoon Primary School, her polling place. "So I got my husband, and I got my parents and we all came out and voted together."

The Times quotes 80-year-old Rashid Majid: "We have freedom now, we have human rights, we have democracy. We will invite the insurgents to take part in our system. If they do, we will welcome them. If they don't, we will kill them."