Dateline Baghdad
By Thomas Foreman January 26, 2005
Sgt. Thomas Foreman Jr. of Black Lick is a Pennsylvania National Guardsman serving in Iraq.
zwire.com
A tale of two countries
It shall be the best of times; it shall be the worst of times. I am speaking, of course, of the upcoming Iraqi elections.
In its long years of foreign dominance, Iraq has known precious few of such things. Under the deposed King Faisal, there were parliamentary elections for an assembly that had no real power under a minority Sunni king. Under the brutal Saddam Hussein, roughly half the country was eligible to vote in a simple yes-no referendum on his own continued presence in the seat of power. This is uncharted territory for all but the very oldest of citizens in this gifted, tragic land.
Contrast this with our own United States. Voting is such a privilege for us that almost half of us assume we don't need to do it. A charge of having to wait four hours before casting a ballot launches an investigation into voter fraud in Ohio. Those Buckeye voters had to stand in the rain, for heaven's sake. The rain! No danger of that here in Baghdad, I think. We got our yearly allotment of precipitation about two days ago in one big spit. Waiting four hours to cast a vote? Please! These people have been waiting almost 1,200 years!
It often strikes me to see Iraqis marvel and struggle over things that we Americans take for granted. There is at least one man here who was completely unaware of the existence of electric razors.
So with the elections coming up, I see much hope. They largely want this election. Not so they can be like America, with its shiny cars and big buildings.
No, they want to be, for the first time in their lives, a true, united Iraqi people. If eventually they choose the path that America chose long ago or go a different way is long to be decided once a constitution is developed and some semblance of stability can be brought into the streets. The point is, on that day the Iraqis will decide. Not the U.S. Army, not an appointed governor and not a fundamentalist madman. Them. The people.
Many naysayers on both sides of the Atlantic claim the election is a farce, an invitation to disaster and civil war. The running polls put participation somewhere between 65 percent and 80 percent. Even if you take the more pessimistic figure, you still have a higher turnout than we have had since the Kennedy-Nixon election.
True, they won't have to deal with inconveniences like rain, but those car bombs are pretty good at putting your nerves on edge, especially if you're standing in a long line out in the street.
With the upcoming election here and the recent inauguration of our own president to a second term, I let my thoughts drift back to the horrible dark times of the 2000 election. I remember the chants of the protesters on both sides claiming that many had died for our right to vote, and they would not be denied. I remember one pundit calling the Florida troubles the biggest crisis democracy had ever seen. Oh really?
My memory is a bit fuzzy for about three or four days after that election, because I didn't sleep a wink and mainlined coffee until sometime the following Friday. I don't remember every detail, the moves and counter-moves. What I do remember is this: No shots were fired, no bombs went off and there were no soldiers from either side roaming the streets. If that is a crisis, then the situation in Iraq is hopeless.
Here's the good part: It's not hopeless. Every Iraqi I talk to has hope. I've written several times on the power of hope, and right here is a living, breathing 24-million-strong testament to it. As long as some hope endures for the Iraqi people, my time here will not have been wasted.
It will not be perfect. This very well could be the most dangerous period we face while we are over here. There will be some violence against election workers, voters, even the candidates themselves. That precedent has been set already in the past few weeks.
We are ready. The Iraqis are ready. And we all know what we have to do to see this vital task through to its conclusion.
Most of the forward-thinking Shi'a have implored voter participation and have promised a secular government that will be sensitive to both of Iraq's minorities, the Sunni Arabs and the Kurds of the North. This means that there is also much encouragement. One of the great fears is that the long-delayed emergence of the majority Shi'a will lead to civil war and division. The indications, however, are that the Shi'a are grasping this opportunity to express one of the oldest, deepest traditions of the three faiths of this region, Islam, Judaism and Christianity: "Love thy neighbor as thou would love thyself."
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs told us a few months ago that we had to "Vote or Die." Tell that to an Iraqi, and you'll likely get a defiant smile and something along the lines of, "It's worth it."
The Iraqi people are standing on the doorstep of history. Democracy has never worked in this part of the world, say so many. On Jan. 30, a day that I don't doubt will prove to be glorious and terrible, we will see just how many people believe it can work. They have hope. Who are we to deny them that?
I know I have no true place speaking to a people on how to govern their own land or whether the risks are worth it. But if I were given one moment to speak to all in this country, I would share with them the words of one of our greatest Americans, a man who also sought to lead his people from bondage. He knew the road was fraught with peril, but he never doubted. That great man was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and his words are so relevant today:
"Well, I don't know what will happen now; we've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life - longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And so I'm happy tonight; I'm not worried about anything; I'm not fearing any man."
Words of hope, my friends. |
