Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

In numbers too big to ignore

Amir Taheri:

The brave voters of Iraq defied the terrorists — and proved the doom-mongers wrong

AS IRAQIS voted in their first truly free election, they may have noticed a slogan on some walls in Baghdad and parts of the Sunni Triangle: Min al-sanduq il-al-sanduq. Its literal translation is “from the box into the box”. But the message is starker: “From the ballot box to the coffin.” Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian leader of the jihadists in Iraq, issued a statement before polling day threatening: “We shall kill anyone associated with elections: candidates, monitors, and voters.” The tone of those who opposed yesterday’s election was set by Yussuf al-Ayyeri, the al-Qaeda theoretician, who in a book published in 2003 described Iraq as “the principal battleground between Islam and the forces of Unbelief”. “It is not the American war machine that should be of the utmost concern to Muslims. What threatens the future of Islam, in fact its survival, is American democracy,” al-Ayyeri wrote. Last month Osama bin Laden called on jihadists to disrupt Iraq’s elections on the ground that only Allah has the power to legislate. The jihadists have been as good as their words. Al-Zarqawi’s followers alone were responsible for more than a dozen suicide bombings on the “centres of infidelity and apostasy” (polling stations). At least 35 people lost their lives to terrorists yesterday; before Sunday, scores of election workers and candidates were murdered, and buildings belonging to half a dozen political parties were blown up. But the determination of the terrorists to disrupt the election was matched by the majority of Iraqis who wanted democracy to prevail. Turnout was higher than had been expected at more than 60 per cent. Another sign of that determination was that nearly 8,000 men and women stood for election on more than 400 lists of candidates, sponsored by 111 political parties.

Can Zarqawi kill 8 million Iraqis? His intimidation failed and his insurgency has failed even though like the Klu Klux Klan he may go on trying to terrorize. But, it is not working. Iraqis not only igored his bluster they also ignored the grizzley evidence of his terrorist walking over their body parts to vote.

The Iraqi determination to vote was so strong that the main stream media as well as the Arab media had to take note tht the real story was the voters and not exploding terrorist. It was a defeat not only for the terrorist but for the Kennedy wing of the Democrat party who have sounded retreat in the face of a very weak insurgency.