THE ELECTION IN IRAQ

On Sunday some percentage of the Iraqi people will participate in that country's first ever free election. Despite the bombs, bullets and threats, some Iraqis will dare to go to the polls and cast their ballots. Much of the coverage of the election by the MSM will center on the percentage of Iraqis that do have the courage to turn out. If only a modest percentage comes out, the MSM will label the election as illegitimate, even though in recent years here in the United States our elections have often had a rather lackluster turnout, and yet no one in the MSM challenges their validity.

I believe focusing attention on turnout is exactly the wrong way to view this election, or any election for that matter. In the last century election turnout always approached nearly 100% in the old Soviet Union, while turnout was dropping in the US from around 70% to 50%. Which nation was having free and fair elections? The answer, of course, is obvious. In a totalitarian state, the people are ordered to turn out and vote for whomever they are told to vote for. Fearing imprisonment, torture or even execution, they comply. In a free country, we get to choose whether or not we want to participate.

In Iraq on Sunday the people will be coming out to vote, or staying home, not because the killers are telling them to vote, but because the killers are telling them not to. When the killers were in charge in Iraq the people docilely trooped to their polling place and made their mark for Saddam Hussein. On Sunday, we will find out just how many Iraqis are willing to defy the killers and risk death or maiming in order to exercise the franchise. Any number higher than 50% will be astounding, and a victory for the cause of freedom.