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Today the Boogeyman died

Much to the dismay of leftists everywhere, Iraqis went to vote and became citizens of their country, rather than subjects of a dictatorship.

Today the boogeyman died in Iraq. Everyone said "the insurgents will get you if you vote", but the Iraqi people looked fear in the face and cast their vote to take control of their destiny. The blue finger of free people has been stuffed in the end of the rifles of the enemies of mankind.

Today the bigots lost. The bigots that say that "Arabs dont want to vote" or "Islam cant support Democracy" are now scratching their heads like the bigots did when they confronted in the 1940's with the reality of "lowly black men" flying P-51's with great proficiency. 10 years after Tuskeegee, those same black men wanted not only to vote but that their sons and daughters should go to school on an equal basis with the sons and daughters of white men. 40 years later in the same week that Iraqis became citizens overcoming 5,000 years of oppression, a black mans daughter became Secretary of State in the most powerful country the world has ever seen.

"Let Freedom Ring" the man said, and today it surely has. The ropes of the belltower of freedom are now pulled by the men and women of Iraq. They stand with men and women around the world who were once slaves to dictators and kings, who are now free.

Today, Osama sits in his cave eating top ramen with Mullah Omar, Saddam sits in a Cell in a Bagdhad prison awaiting his inevitable doom and they wonder where the dream of the new caliphate fell apart. They sit and take council with the ghosts of all tyrants and dicatators;in their dark corner sits the slowly fading shadow of the boogeyman that haunts the dark recesses in the souls of all mankind. The shadows that are now fading because of the bright antiseptic light of freedom that is flooding into Osamas cave and Saddams cell is not coming from North America and Europe, but from the middle east. More importantly, it is now beginning to get twilight in the chambers of goverments in Saudi Arabia, Syria and possibly even North Korea.

ed: Perhaps there is a "new boogeyman", free men and women, perhaps that is the scariest thing ever created. I guess so, if youre a murderous dicator or a theocratic thug...

Somehwere in Iraq is a woman and her daughter walking down the street to the market, both with blue fingers in brave defiance of all the threats of death and terror promised them. Iraqis are no longer slaves to their masters and will never be again. Arabs are free, by choice, and the world will be a better place for it.

Someday, 40 years from now, perhaps an Iraqi woman will be president of Iraq. Can anyone argue that the Arab world might also undergo the same kind of deep change? Why not,it's happened before. If Germany can go from a once strong militarist state that threatended the peace of the world, not once but twice, to one that is now totally pacifist,then anything is possible.

Once upon a time, farmers in Concord Massachusets took on the largest and strongest power in the world in defiance of everything that made sense to the people of the world at that time. That shot from that unknown farmer started a chain of events that has led to the liberation of millions of people around the world.

It was a simple idea really "no man is my master!", and it sure as hell has caught on, hasnt it!

Today, the slavemasters of the world lost. Today, those who look at the people in their country as their private property were told in no uncertain terms that given the chance to be free, all people will choose to be free. People will brave bullets to be free, people will lay down their lives for others to have just the chance be free.

Today, in the battlefield graveyards in Gettysburg Pennsylvania, Omaha Beach in France, Stavelot Belgium and in the Punchbowl in Hawaii, the souls of the men who died for freedom in their generation sigh in relief that the sacifices of their lives did not go wasted.

Today, at a streetside cafe in Berlin, a grandfather and son look across the street and think about the wall that once divided a nation and the hearts of all Germans. The grandfather looks up to see an aircraft and thinks back to the day long ago not so far from the cafe where as a child he caught a handkerchief parachute that held a bit of candy, dropped from a man he never knew and would never meet. He smiles to his son, in recognition of the small gift that once fell from the sky and the great gift that now sits before him, all encompassed in the light of a freedom his own father could never have thought possible. Their waiter is an Iraqi immigrant,as he picks up the tray, the grandfather looks at the waiters hand and sees that he has a blue finger. The waiter and the grandfather make eye contact, and in their heart, they know. yesterday they were two men on differnt journeys in their lives, but today, they are brothers.

Iraq is one of the birthplaces of civilization. In some ways I think that human civiliation has come home to its roots. I'm greatful that I lived to see the wall in Berlin come down. Im greatful I saw my friend Masooma vote in Afghanistan, and Im greatful for the courage of the Iraqi people in their struggle against tryanny.

This is a great time to be alive. My children may see the day when all men, everywhere are free. My grandfather could not see it, not my father, perhaps not even me, but my kids just might live in an age that could never have been conceived of when that farmer in Concord lined up his sights on that unknown redcoat 200 years ago.

Posted @ January 30, 2005 01:04 PM | Current Affairs