With less than a week to go before the Iraqi elections, insurgent violence will no doubt increase. Many Iraqi citizens will give in to the fear and stay home. Many people will die. And in the end, the legitimacy of the winners’ victories will probably be tenuous at best.
Meanwhile, back in America – Pundit-ville, as I like to call it – critics of the elections will point to the chaos and say, “We told you so.” These short-sighted feet-draggers argue Iraq isn’t ready to hold elections until the country is more secure, which is ridiculous.
There’s no right time to lose your virginity and there’s no right time to hold your first elections as a free people. If you’re going to do it, just do it – there’s never going to be a time when it’s easy. If we wait until Iraq is an oasis of democratic ideals before holding elections, the U.S.-
appointed interim government will be in power forever.
Democracy is a journey, not a
destination. For years, minorities and women couldn’t vote in this country. Our idea of liberty was
seriously screwed up. But we kept on holding elections.
As we addressed one problem, there was always another to take its place. To this day, our democracy is rife with problems. We’ve never had a perfect election in America. The path to freedom seems to be two steps forward, one step back.
In our own history, there have been those who said America wasn’t ready for the steps it was taking – those who have retreated at the first sign of difficulty. By and large, history has forgotten their names.
History is shaped, for better or worse, by those who are willing to face struggle. If we truly believe that a democratic Iraq is worth having, then we have to accept the fact that it will not come cheap.
Of course, it’s easy for me to
say that as someone who will not have to directly pay the price for a free Iraq, just as it is easy for some to criticize the elections when their own right to vote is relatively secure. The real question is whether the Iraqi people want democracy – and that question will be answered on Sunday.
How many people will stand up to the violence, face the fear, and go to the polls? I don’t know the answer to that question; no one does. But come Sunday, we’ll know for sure how many Iraqis value their vote enough to risk death.
Democracy can’t be forced. It must live in the hearts of the people, or it will never take root. The Iraqis themselves will decide whether they are ready for democracy, and they will tell the world with their actions on Sunday. Just as surely as democracy cannot be forced, neither can it be stopped once it has taken root. If the Iraqis are ready for democracy, it’ll show in the turnout, insurgency or no insurgency.
We will know whether democracy has taken hold in Iraq, but it will not be the absence of conflict that tells us – democracy is not a smooth process. Meaningful change is always accompanied by struggle of some kind.
As for me, I’ll be back here in
Pundit-ville, watching the news and hoping for success. There have
already been some incredible changes in Iraq, and I dare to hope for more. People are getting access to education like never before. Outlets for free speech are sprouting up slowly but surely. And a guaranteed 25 percent of the members of Iraq’s new parliament will be women (women make up only 14 percent of our national legislature).
Change has come to Iraq, and it seems to be sticking surprisingly well. Is it too much to hope that they can once again take control of their own destiny as free people ruled by popular sovereignty? Like I said, we’ll see. In the meantime, let freedom ring.

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