Editorial: Iraq hopes to chart new beginning

Friday, Jan. 28, 2005 | 5:44 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

January 29 - 30, 2005

By any reckoning, the past week in Iraq was dreadful in terms of violence and lives lost. Wednesday was the deadliest single day for U.S. troops since the war began, as 30 U.S. Marines and a Navy medic died when a helicopter carrying them crashed in Iraq's western desert, bringing the war's total U.S. death toll to more than 1,400. Then on Friday, during combat operations, five U.S. soldiers were killed. Meanwhile, all during the week the insurgents intensified their terrorist attacks in advance of today's election, trying to intimidate Iraqis into staying at home and not going to the polls. On Thursday the insurgents killed 11 Iraqis and blew up a school that was to be used as a polling site.

A number of the dispatches filed by newspaper correspondents from Iraq offered a glimpse of just how terrifying it is for many Iraqis to even contemplate voting. A story by The New York Times recounted how insurgents brazenly drove down Baghdad streets in a black sedan, tossing leaflets out the window that warned, "We vow to wash the streets of Baghdad with the voters' blood. ... To those of you who think you can vote and then run away, we will shadow you and catch you, and we will cut off your heads and the heads of your children." The Wall Street Journal profiled the anxieties of a 52-year-old civil engineer over whether he should vote. He lives in a Sunni stronghold of Baghdad where much of the insurgency is based, and is so fearful of what might happen to his family that he wouldn't even tell his wife and daughter about picking up his voter registratio n form. "If my wife and daughter get killed because I wanted to exercise democracy I could never live with myself," he said! , before adding, "Inside I really want to vote."

Even though we noted at the outset of this editorial that the past week in Iraq by any measure could be viewed as dreadful, it does need to be put in context. It is undeniable that these are some of the worst conditions to carry out voting, but it nevertheless was inspiring to see just how determined many Iraqis are to embrace freedom and all of its responsibilities. According to The New York Times, many Baghdad residents were resolute in saying that they were willing to pay whatever price was necessary in order to vote.

"We are not afraid of these leaflets," 24-year-old Mohammed Adel told a Times' correspondent. "I must go to the polling center to vote. I want security and stability for my country." So, even in a week when the news from Iraq offered plenty of reason for pessimism, there was reason for optimism, too, as witnessed by the bravery of the Iraqis who aren't willing to back down from intimidation.

We're still mindful, though, that the principal reason why we invaded -- because of the Bush administration's claim that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- has turned out to be false. We also now know that the White House and the top civilian leaders in the Pentagon ignored concerns that we weren't going to have enough troops on the ground and that an insurgency could rise up and take a deadly toll on Americans. And while it's unconscionable that those in the Bush administration who did such a terrible job of planning for this war and for Iraq's reconstruction have escaped accountability -- and cost so many Americans their lives -- there is no turning back. We can't now abandon those Iraqis who so desperately seek freedom after decades of living under Saddam's tyranny.

We're not sure what today's election will mean for the long-term prospects for Iraq. It very well could be but a blip in Iraq's history. Indeed, even if today's vote -- which should have concluded by the time most people are reading this -- turns out relatively well, it doesn't mean that Iraq will be on the road to stability and democracy. It's also very possible that a civil war between rival sectarian and ethnic factions could occur no matter what happens. But we hope that this election is the first step toward instituting a duly elected government, one whose power will legitimately come from the people. That is our hope for Iraqis, that they one day can live in peace and be free.