Freedom's Fidelity

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Iraqi Elections III

I'll probably have more thoughts later, but the brothers from Iraq the Model, with the help of some stringers, are covering the elections from different points of Iraq, with photos too. It's a pretty neat experiment and probably gives a glimpse as to the future of citizen journalist/original reporting via blog.

Start here, they will be posting updates throughout the day.

UPDATE: Austin Bay writes:

With Iraq's latest trip to the polls, the great revolt continues.
It's not a revolt led by generals with tanks or by millenarian terrorists, but a democratic revolution led by Iraqi men and women braving terrorist threats and bombs to vote.

Democratic politics, emerging in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine, are providing an alternative to the afflictions of war, terror and tyranny. That evil trio has dominated Central Asia and the Middle East, spilling blood, sapping economic progress and destroying hope.

Afghanistan, with its October 2004 presidential election, can lay claim to the War on Terror's first democratic electoral success. The nation, wracked by three decades of war, a Russian invasion and Taliban theo-fascism, has made astounding progress.

Last week, an ABC News survey of Afghanistan touched on several of that nation's extensive developmental problems. Six out of 10 households lack electricity. Fifty percent of Afghan households make less than 500 dollars a year. Afghanis think cultivating opium poppies is justifiable if farmers lack economic alternatives.

The political opinion half of the poll suggests Afghanis foresee brighter prospects, however. ABC reported "77 percent of Afghans say their country is headed in the right direction -- compared with 30 percent in the vastly better-off United States. Ninety-one percent prefer the current Afghan government to the Taliban regime, and 87 percent call the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban good for their country. Osama bin Laden, for his part, is as unpopular as the Taliban; nine in 10 view him unfavorably."

Remember the voices of defeatism and pessimism in the fall of 2001? They swore that Afghanistan would be a "quagmire," a "Himalayan Vietnam." Bin Laden was a hero offering jihadist utopia, and his anti-Western message would sweep the Muslim world. Utter blarney and balderdash. Military victory in Afghanistan paved the way for political and economic reformation.

Read the rest.

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