Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2005 | 9:02 a.m.
President Bush has hailed Sunday's election in Iraq as a "resounding success." Official returns might not be known for days, but it's estimated that 60 percent of Iraqis voted despite the violence and threats of reprisals against those who voted.
On a purely technical level and compared to the tranquility with which the United States conducts its elections, Sunday's election was hardly perfect. Iraqis paid a terrible price through the violence carried out on Election Day, with 44 people killed in terrorist attacks. And because so many candidates had been killed or targeted for death by insurgents, many of them campaigned anonymously, relying on voters to choose them based on their assigned number on the ballot.
But none of that should detract from how heartwarming and exhilarating it was to see such uncommon bravery, as millions of Iraqis defied the terrorists and cast their lot with democracy. Sunday's vote also is a testament to the courage and resoluteness displayed by U.S. and British troops, who have been willing to sacrifice their lives so that the Iraqi people can have a better future. There certainly will be setbacks along the way as Iraqis write a constitution and form a government -- setbacks that inevitably will include more violence by insurgents. But what a wonderful beginning for a people who suffered for decades under a brutal dictatorship.
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