Iraqi Democracy 3, Terrorists 0

By U.S. Senator Jon Kyl After months of criticism of President Bushs policy, gloomy press coverage that seemed to focus almost entirely on car bombs, and near panic on the part of some Congressional Democrats, we now have a useful barometer to assess the real state of affairs in Iraq - Thursdays historic and enormously successful parliamentary elections. The third national plebiscite vote in just two years since Iraqs liberation from Saddam Hussein was largely free of violence and saw a turnout rate higher than most western nations. Millions of Iraqis who proudly dipped their fingers in purple ink, enjoying the democracy that our troops and their own have sacrificed so much to build, provided what the Wall Street Journal rightly described as the most eloquent rebuttal to American defeatists. Voter turnout was high across nearly all regions of the country, including such former terrorist strongholds as Fallujah and Tal Afar. Sunni Arabs, who largely sat out Januarys interim election and Octobers constitutional referendum, have clearly changed their minds, participating in the democratic process in such huge numbers that some polling sites ran out of ballots. No one ethnic group or party is likely to emerge with a clear majority in parliament; so forming a new government will require flexibility and compromise. And time. This process will be as difficult in Iraq as it is in every other parliamentary democracy, but thats a sign of civic health. As are numerous improvements in the lives of ordinary Iraqis that never seem to command the media attention that relatively isolated terrorist attacks do. Most Americans are not aware, for example, that: · According to a Brookings Institution report, for all the insurgents' attempts to sabotage the Iraqi economy, per capita income has doubled since 2003 and is now 30% higher than it was before the war. · The Iraqi economy is projected to grow 16.8% in 2006; there are five times as many cars on the streets than in Saddam Hussein's day, five times more telephone subscribers, and 32 times as many Internet users. · While one independent media outlet existed in Iraq before 2003, there are now 44 commercial television stations, 72 radio stations, and more than 100 newspapers. · To all of this, writes Norman Podhoretz of Commentary www.commentarymagazine.com/, we can add the 3,404 public schools, 304 water and sewage projects, 257 fire and police stations, and 149 public-health facilities that had been built as of September 2005, with another 921 such projects currently under construction. · On the military front, a November report by the Committee on the Present Danger (which I am privileged to co-chair in an honorary capacity with Sen. Joseph Lieberman), cites a compelling example of what is being accomplished by American troops. In the recent Operation Steel Curtain on the Syrian border, our troops detained more than 1,000 suspected insurgents. One hundred weapons caches were found and cleared. The report also notes the steady strengthening of the Iraqi armed forces, and the increasing degree of responsibility they are assuming in the fight against the insurgency: Since July, Iraq's armed forces have added 22 new battalions, and 5,500 police-service personnel have been trained and equipped (as have some 2,000 special-police commanders). Coalition senior officers report that 80 Iraqi battalions now are able to fight alongside our troops and 36 are "generally able to conduct independent operations." More than 20 of the coalition's forward-operating bases have been turned over to the Iraqi army. One would hope that these improvements and last weeks election would finally silence the claims, from Hollywood to Howard Dean, that the war in Iraq is "unwinnable." The sheer size of yesterday's turnout makes clear that the insurgency lacks a broad base of support inside Iraq. If the new government serves its people well and protects the rights of Iraqs minority Sunnis, terrorists will have fewer and fewer places to hide. Sen. Kyl serves on the Senate Finance, Judiciary and Energy & Natural Resources committees and chairs the Republican Policy Committee. Visit his website at www.kyl.senate.gov/