The Frinklin and Fred Show

72%

That would be the projected voter turnout for elections in Iraq. Will it prove anything? Will this excuse the Bush Administration's sloppy handling of post-war Iraq? Who knows, but there are few things like seeing a people taking control of their own destiny.

The following is from Fred Kaplan's Slate column. Kaplan, for those who don't read him, is much like me: pro-war, but not necessarily pro-Bush. It’s what the President is counting on, something that the anti-war crowd never seems to understand.

Finally, imagine a Syrian watching Al-Arabiya, seeing Iraqi-born Syrians going to special polling places to elect Iraqi leaders, observing that no Syrians of any sort have the right to elect the leaders of Syria—and perhaps asking himself, "Why?" It is not inconceivable that this flicker of democratic practice in Iraq could ignite a flame of some sort across the Middle East. To what end, and for ultimate good or ill, who knows. But something happened in Iraq today, something not only dramatic and stirring but perhaps also very big.

That, the Syrians, Jordanians, Saudis, Palestinians... that's why bringing Democracy to the Middle East is so important. I hope, for all our sakes, that it works.

Update Alright, maybe its closer to 60%. Still impressive.

Posted by Frinklin at January 30, 2005 06:04 PM