Iraqi Elections May Have 15 Million Participants

This from FoxNews.

15,000,000 voters with turnouts high in all areas. Low violence to greet voters on the street. Families walking to the polls together, and a festive atmosphere according to the on-line news service accounts. There were election glitches here and there, but, by and large, in a country that has been so far removed from freedom and voting rights, things went stunningly well.

I have watched no television today and didn't listen to the radio at all either until late afternoon when I put on All Things Considered on NPR. It took about 10 seconds of listening to NPR before Ann Garrels spoke of Iraqis upset with the election.

Perhaps it is just my impeccable timing to be able to catch some pessemism from a noted leftist like Gerrals.

Despite all of that, I feel like what we have done is a good thing. It has been difficult, and there have been many lives lost. Many heroes made the ultimate sacrifice for what occurred today. The difficulty certainly doesn't end today either, nor will it tomorrow or next week. But, we have accomplished something that so many people, including Gerrals I'm sure, thought we couldn't have approached. Now, from this new summit, we can climb taller hills and accomplish even greater things.

The idea of a budding democracy in the Middle-East carries with it a tremendous long term promise of peace and stability in that part of the world. Anyone that believes that this isn't in our national interest has probably attended too many Saddam Hussein birthday celebrations.