Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: haqihana who wrote (143408)	10/17/2005 9:05:34 AM
From: Andrew N. Cothran	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 794009

Events that repudiate the negative MEDIA. Will the MSM'S ever learn? So it was in Iraq this past weekend, when voters stood up to potential terrorist violence in astonishingly high numbers, apparently approving a new constitution despite strong Sunni opposition to the document. "By all indications, the turnout was greater than the turnout from the last-January election, which is good news," said President Bush yesterday afternoon. "I am also pleased from the initial indications that the level of violence was considerably less than the last election," he continued. "That's a tribute to the Iraqi forces, who we've trained, as well as coalition forces that worked hard to make sure that democracy can move forward in Iraq." A lower level of violence, sad to say, didn't mean no violence at all: Five U.S. Marines were killed in a roadside bombing. Freedom isn't free, not ever — not for Americans, not for Iraqis. The outcome of the constitutional balloting represents yet another blow to those effectively rooting for the defeat of American and allied policies in the Mideast — and their allies in the media. These are the folks who've been predicting catastrophe for the United States almost from the moment a coherent response to 9/11 began to take shape. Afghanistan was going to be a "quagmire" of the sort that defeated the Soviet Union. And when that didn't happen, the resultant elections were sure to be a fiasco — except, of course, they weren't Fast forward to last January's Iraqi elections — another guaranteed repudiation of America's vision for the region that never happened. Guess the joke's on the media, except that nobody's laughing. None of this guarantees that the proposed constitution will eventually be the template for a democratic Iraq. Nor, in fact, that a democratic Iraq is possible under any circumstances. What is clear, however, is that the greater Mideast has fundamentally changed since 9/11. There is a long, long way to go before the region no longer is susceptible to the practice — and export — of terrorism for political purposes. But Iraq, clearly, no longer represents an objective threat to its neighbors, and that can be only a long-term positive for the region. The Iranian mullahs, in particular, have lost a critical bogeyman in Saddam Hussein — and, over time, are going to find it increasingly difficult to hold in thrall their young, vibrant and Western-oriented population. Similarly, the despots who control Syria and Saudi Arabia are threatened by Iraq's evolving democracy — which is why there is so much Syrian and Saudi aid to the Iraqi terrorists. The weekend election results are not definitive, by any means. But they vindicate U.S. policy, and are a giant step toward regional peace. It seems that the Iraqis have a constitution, if they can keep it