Dancing the Night Away

[Annie]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006258#dance

Iraqis Fight Back--and Dance
The Australian Broadcast Corp. relays a wonderful story from Iraq:

The Iraqi police have investigated a case in the village of al-Mudhariya, which is just south of Baghdad. The villagers there say that before the election insurgents came and warned them that if they voted in last weekend's election, they would pay.

Now the people of this mixed village of Sunni and Shia Muslims, they ignored the threat and they did turn out to vote.

We understand that last night the insurgents came back to punish the people of al-Mudhariya, but instead of metering [sic] out that punishment the villagers fought back and they killed five of the insurgents and wounded eight. They then burnt the insurgents' car. So the people of that village have certainly had enough of the insurgents.

"It would appear that people are getting sick of the insurgency," says reporter Mark Willacy. "I understand, though, that this is the first report of Iraqis confronting insurgents and actually fighting back in such a way." Let's hope it's not the last. (Blogger Ali Fadhil translates another report on the incident, from Radio Sawa, an Arabic-language service run by the State Department.)

It's quite understandable that Iraqis would be bolder about standing up to the terrorists now than they were last year. Just over three months ago, after all, there was a possibility, no matter how remote, that John Kerry would be elected president, which could have led to an American retreat from Iraq. Iraqis naturally kept their heads down, lest they suffer the same fate as the Vietnamese allies America abandoned at Kerry's urging three decades earlier.

And of course the Iraqi election this week reinforces that freedom is here to stay--something the Iraqis understand, even if not all Americans do. Charles Krauthammer makes the point in his column today:

Why weren't Iraqis dancing in the streets on the day Saddam Hussein fell, critics have asked sneeringly. Some Iraqis, the young and more reckless, did dance. Others, I suspect, were too scared, waiting to see how things turned out. Would the United States leave them hanging as in 1991? Would it leave behind a "moderate" Baathist thug in its place?

Nearly 22 months later, Iraqis seemed convinced that there would indeed be a new day. And that is when the dancing started--voters dancing and singing and celebrating, thrusting into the air their ink-stained fingers, symbol of their initiation into democracy. It was an undeniable, if delayed, feeling of liberation.

A certain haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way delivered weapons to the Khmer Rouge, responded by fretting that someone might "try to overhype this election."

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Nietzsche

 

[dilloduck]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006258#dance