[mdittmar]

“The era of hidden agendas in Iraq is over,” says Adel Abdul-Mahdi. “We have entered a new chapter in our history in which power emanates from the will of the people as expressed through free elections. The world should give us a chance before rushing to judge us.”

[RoseofTexas]

DANG IT! It's all Bush's fault!!

[ThirstyMan]

My sentiments exactly!
Time to be proud of what we've done and pray that it prospers in the face of much violent opposition from the totalitarians. A spirit has been awakened in Iraq and now let's pray it will be very difficult, nay, impossible, to get it back in the bottle.

[Soul Seeker]

That's the quote I focused on as well.

The same sceptics of the war, the same sceptics of the elections taking place, are the same skeptics insisting Iraq will adopt an Iranian Theocracy.

Why? Maybe they are hoping Iraq will follow suit so it counts as failure for Bush. Perhaps they are afraid of the unknown. Perhaps they are prejudiced against people of a different race and a different religion than they are accustomed.

My response is that in the past few years alone we've seen the power of Liberty. It's worth the risks, it shouldn't be subject to political calculation and importantly I recall no clause in the Bible stating peoples located in the Middle East were incapable of peaceful free governance because their religion was different than the majority in this country.

I'm hopeful. I'm heard not one reasonable argument for why I shouldn't be hopeful. Only resentment, fear and prejudice in its place. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that they will protect the freedom they've newly experienced more than some in this country that seem to want to turn that freedom over to the will of the U.N.

[SunkenCiv]

Ping!