In this morning's online edition of the Post, the editors rightfully take Sens. Kerry & Kennedy to task for their openly cynical (if not outright derrogatory) attitude toward the Iraqi elections. In so doing, not only are they pandering to the lunatic fringe of the party, they deny the courage and commitment of the Iraqi people to exercise their newfound right to vote, and their joy in doing something we Americans take for granted. I'd like to see Massachusettes voters come out to vote if mortar fire, suicide bombs and Al Qaeda terrorists might be waiting for them outside the local public school or police station.
"Kerry, in his first broadcast interview since losing last November, suggested that there was something illegitimate about the election because the turnout in some areas wasn't even larger.
And, he warned, "no one in the United States should overhype this election."
Which makes you wonder just what — short of the kind of craven U.S. bugout he prescribed for Vietnam — Kerry would deem an important development.
After all, the point of the war was to begin pushing the Arab Middle East out of its dead-end rut of tyranny and the export of terror. And Iraqis made a huge step forward in that regard Sunday — in an election that many on the left predicted (and, no doubt, privately hoped) would be a failure.
Kennedy, meanwhile, stuck by his pre-election demand for immediate U.S. withdrawal — and even refused to term the voting a success, saying Bush "must look beyond the election" and "demonstrate to the Iraqi people that we have no long-term design on their country."
Even after the most significant political development in Iraq since the invasion, Kerry and Kennedy couldn't summon the grace to acknowledge progress.
Millions of Iraqis, many at grave personal risk, turned out to vote. That is, a clear majority of the Iraqi people on Sunday endorsed America's vision of their future — and in so doing sanctified the sacrifices so many young Americans have made on their behalf.
This was a stunning repudiation of the terrorists — and a signal moment in the eternal quest for human freedom. The Kerry-Kennedy failure to recognize that illustrates their personal moral myopia — while the Democratic Party's failure to celebrate it demonstrates its institutional lack of ethical bearings.
Day-uhm! Well said.
