IRAQ VOTES – AT 7:08 A.M. ET:  Those two words alone – Iraq votes – are historic. 

Iraq voted in a nationwide election yesterday.  It was played down by the Democratic administration in Washington, which doesn't place too much emphasis on this democracy stuff.  But millions of Iraqis went to the polls, despite explosions and threats, as The New York Times reports: 

BAGHDAD — Defying a sustained barrage of mortars and rockets in Baghdad and other cities, Iraqis went to the polls in strength on Sunday to choose a new Parliament meant to outlast the American military presence here.

“Iraqis are not afraid of bombs anymore,” said Maliq Bedawi, 45, defiantly waving his finger, stained with purple ink, to indicate he had voted, as he stood near the rubble of an apartment building in Baghdad hit by a huge rocket in the deadliest attack of the day.

Insurgents here vowed to disrupt the election, and the concerted wave of attacks — as many as 100 thunderous blasts in the capital alone starting just before the polls opened — did frighten voters away, but only initially.

And...

The short and fierce political campaign could end up either solidifying Iraq’s nascent democracy or leaving the country fractured along ethnic and sectarian lines. But it was arguably the most open, most competitive election in the nation’s long history of colonial rule, dictatorship and war.

Fair enough.  Of course, no one gave credit to President Bush.  President Obama made a boilerplate statement and could have praised his predecessor for his vision, but, once again, being a small timer, refused to do so.  Even Richard Nixon, when Americans went to the moon, reminded the nation that it was John F. Kennedy who set us on course for the moon flight. 

Iraq will still be a struggle.  There are no guarantees.  But we hope that Obama does not pull the plug too soon, and leave Iraq the way we disgracefully left Vietnam in 1975.

March 8, 2010