three days

On 9 April 2003, the statue of Saddam fell in Firdos Square, Baghdad. That afternoon I went to mock antiwar protesters in the main square here in Bloomington.

Twenty-one months and more have passed since. The news has often been grim; given the astounding success of the invasion, I did not expect that the path to Iraqi independence would be as difficult as it has proven. But I nonetheless have little patience for the moulting hawks whose support for this endeavor has depended upon how closely our efforts have resembled some unrealizable Platonic Ideal.

Indeed, I have greater forbearance for those who opposed Gulf War II from the outset, provided that they did so in good faith. For these can agree that—whatever differences we might have had until now—it is of utmost importance that the mission succeed. And a crucial test will come in three days, with the Iraqi national elections.

It will be a test by fire.

Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has purportedly declared a “bitter war” on Iraq's parliamentary elections in an audio tape posted on the Internet.

he tape urged Sunni Muslims to fight against the vote next Sunday, which the speaker said was a plot against them by Washington and its “infidel” Shi'ite Muslim allies.

“We have declared a bitter war against the principle of democracy and all those who seek to enact it,” the speaker, who was identified as Zarqawi, said.

“Candidates in elections are seeking to become demi-gods while those who vote for them are infidels. And with God as my witness, I have informed them (of our intentions).”

Insurgents in a town in central Iraq made a gruesome billboard threat to behead Iraqis who take part in next weekend's elections, warning they will use ink thumb prints to be issued at polling stations to target voters.

The graphic poster, showing a headless body with its thumb covered in ink, was pasted next to campaign materials in the town. All voters will have a thumb marked with a visible UV ink - which will remain on the skin for 48 hours - to prevent repeat polling.

The violence is of course already coming in waves, from car bombs and suicide attacks and assassinations by bullet and beheading. Potential voters—ordinary citizens—have become targets of choice: Zarqawi has said, in as many words, that the desire for self-determination is enough to mark one for death.

Every vote cast this Sunday will be a rejection of that message. And I hope (but also expect) that in the face of this danger the best in the human spirit will shine forth, that the people of Iraq will turn out in great number. There will be irregularities, of course, and disputes that will take weeks or more to resolve. But those among our media and punditocracy who will focus primarily upon those faults will reveal only the smallness of their souls.

Democracy in the Land Between the Rivers might still prove an experiment which fails utterly. Yet I would put even odds—at least—on a very different outcome: that this election will instead be of profoundly historic significance, and will mark the beginning of the advance of human freedom in a region that has until now never seen the like.

Pray.

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UPDATE. For comprehensive election coverage, written primarily by Iraqis, bookmark Friends of Democracy - Iraq Election News.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also has a comprehensive page here.