I sometimes grow weary of the childish ranting of the left. Usually I just laugh as these pseudo-intellectuals are reduced to name calling and snide remarks rather than fact based argumentation and debate. As the recent election proved, in the battleground of ideas and principles, the majority of the American people have a clear understanding of what is important and where they stand on the critical issues of the day.

For me, it was national security and the desire to see a successful conclusion to our intervention in Iraq. Even though I am a Democrat and have only voted for one Republican presidential candidate in my life, my stand on this issue has resulted in my being labeled a conservative, a neocon or as that always enlightening StageLeft might say a “wingnut”. I am not all that big on labels, but I’m cool with whatever you want to call me. If my confidence in being on the right side of this issue makes me Rightwing, so be it.

Now, reasonable people can disagree on the wisdom of overthrowing Saddam, but that debate is now academic. We have rid the world of this tyrant, and now the future of the Iraqi people depends on our will and resolve to stay the course as Iraq makes its first tentative steps towards democracy. So the question is not whether you were against the war, rather it is where do you stand on the issue of freedom?

For me liberty and freedom from oppression are classic liberal values. In a world turned upside down, it is the left who are now positioned in opposition to this traditional liberal dogma and have aligned instead with the forces of tyranny. Since there is no logical argument that can be made in support of its opposition to freedom in Iraq, the left resorts to name calling in hatred of those who have usurped the cause of justice.

Make no mistake, the so-called “insurgents” in Iraq are doing everything in their power to derail the exercise of freedom of choice as Iraqis prepare to elect a government in less than two weeks. Despite the bombs and killing of election workers and security forces, the terrorists in Iraq will fail. The left in America, with Michael Moore as their spokesman, can continue to call these brutal thugs “minute-men” and “freedom fighters”, but the obvious fact remains that those who are killing innocents are vehemently opposed to any form of freedom or democracy.

Guess what? The Iraqis are not listening. Most Iraqis intend to vote in the January 30 elections, despite the danger. Reuters reports that “67 percent of Baghdadis planned to vote. Twenty-five percent said they would not take part and nine percent were undecided. “These figures are positive and indicate that Iraqis are undeterred by the threats,” a spokesman for Iraq’s Independent Electoral Commission said.” If these numbers hold, that will represent a larger turnout than the record setting American elections last November.

The hypocrisy, and dare I say it, the racism, of the left in opposing freedom and democracy for the Iraqis is summed up nicely in this post by Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters:

Many of the American Left want us to delay the Iraqi elections, despite the fact that (a) the interim Iraqi constitution requires the election to retire the interim government in place of a representative parliament, and (b) it would reward the terrorists who bomb and murder people by the score to put off an honest election. Too bad the American Left can’t demonstrate the intestinal fortitude of the Iraqis themselves. In the same poll, only 23% of Baghdadis want the elections put off — about half of what one would find in the birthplace of modern democracy. That result should shame those who call for the cowardly retreat in the face of the brutal attacks that have unnerved more Americans than Iraqis.

Don’t underestimate the power and promise of self-government, especially for a people who have endured brutal and genocidal tyranny for most of their lifetimes. Don’t overestimate the power of those who take their freedoms for granted and who appear to believe that democracy only works with Europeans. Increasingly, they have been revealed as defeatists and moral relativists who don’t have much faith in democracy at all.

How would those calling for an immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq respond to this Iraqi:

I’ve been hearing less gun shots and explosions lately and I think that’s due to two reasons. First the ING and IP have spread all over Baghdad lately with only few hundred meters separating checkpoints in some places. The other possible reason is that the terrorists are probably saving their efforts to the election day and there are many reports that show that they are planning for a wide scale sophisticated and coordinated attacks. I must say that this is highly expected and I would never believe that the Ba’athists and Islamists funded and aided by the intelligence of many Arab and Muslim countries would let the election day pass peacefully.

I’m more than sure they are planning for some serious attacks on that day and it’s not going to be like Afghanistan where there were only few attacks on few voting centers. The stakes are too high for them just as they are for us. We’ve been waiting for the moment when we can decide our future all our lives and now it’s happening and I can’t tell you how excited that makes me and all freedom loving Iraqis. I feel like after voting I would not care what would happen to me. I would say my word, voice my will loud and clear in public for the first time in my life and that means almost everything to me. The terrorist can kill me and many of the Iraqis who are going to vote, but we would die proud. We will regain our self esteem and our pride that Saddam and his thugs took away by humiliating us, torturing and killing our friends and beloved ones infront of our eyes and then spitting in our faces after that, and all we could do was what we had to do to avoid more death and torture, we could only praise them after each murder and each crime. It made us hate ourselves and the whole world, lose our trust in everyone and just keep living a life that was worse than death but one that we still couldn’t sacrifice for a good cause fearing for our families fate after our death.

This horror, fear, hate and loss of trust is gone now but not entirely. We still feel it and they still remind us with it every day with every beheading and every murder they commit against those who actively try to change things in Iraq for the better. We feel it with various degrees, and for some of us it’s turned into an additional motive to fight these thugs and to refuse a life like that even if the only other option is death. I don’t want to live like that again, NEVER, and for that reason I’m going to vote and for the same reason I know that so many Iraqis are going to vote and let the terrorists show us the best they can do, as it won’t stop us.

(from the blog Free Iraqi)

Oh, I can still hear Teddy Kennedy saying “Iraq is Bush’s Vietnam”. As much as he and others on the left (and in the media) might like to have that dream come true, it is an invalid comparison. Well, it compares in the sense that by making a concentrated effort to convince Americans that we are losing and the Iraqis are somehow unworthy of freedom, they hope to undermine the will of the people to continue our mission to bring democracy to Iraq. That they are failing in that mission is amply demonstrated by the reality on the ground. PowerLine quotes an article in the London Times:

In contrast to insurgents who are either nostalgic for Saddam’s reign or, in the case of the Islamists, dreaming fondly of the restoration of a medieval caliphate, a radically different and more hopeful future looks likely to be embraced by Iraq’s majority. In Iraq, unlike Vietnam, it is the Americans who are offering an escape from the corrupt status quo that prevails in the region. If democracy takes root, then Iraq has a chance to transcend the miseries of arbitrary and autocratic rule which, so sadly, imprison many other Arab peoples.

If the Iraqi elections due to be held in less than two weeks’ time are successful that will give the coalition something the Americans never enjoyed in Vietnam — a clear political victory. The insurgents will have been defeated in their principal aim, the denial of democracy.

The Iraqi leaders most likely to emerge in pole position after the vote, such as the United Iraqi Alliance, have already made it clear that they will offer Sunnis senior positions in any new government. After 80 years during which they have been shut out of secular power the Shia leadership have no desire to assume their proper share in the control of Iraq, only to see the nation they inherit immediately fracture.

There are, certainly, dangers ahead. But they lie, as so often in the Middle East, in erring on the side of the status quo.

There is lots of good news like this in Iraq, unfortunately you won’t read about it the NY Times or Washington post. For people who really want to know the truth, you can look at this post from Cheronkoff who regularly reports news that the MSM ignores. Here’s an example from Marine Cpl. Isaac D. Pacheco of Northern Kentucky enlisted in the Marines on September 12, 2001, and has been serving in Iraq at the Combined Press Information Center. Recently he wrote this for his local newspaper:

“Something struck me as odd this fall as I watched a U.S. satellite news broadcast here in my Baghdad office. Something just didn’t seem right. There was the usual tug-of-war between presidential candidates, a story about the Boston Red Sox and a blurb about another explosion in Iraq. The latter story showed the expected images of smoke and debris and people frantically running for cover - images that have become the accepted norm in the minds of many Americans thanks, or should I say no thanks, to the media.

“There were no smiling soldiers, no mention of rebuilding efforts, no heartwarming stories about honor and sacrifice. I could swear I’ve seen that ’stuff’ here.

“I’ve become somewhat callused to this kind of seesaw reporting because every day I work with the news agencies that manufacture it. However, many service members shake their heads in frustration each time they see their daily rebuilding efforts ignored by the media in favor of the more ’sensational’ car bomb and rocket attack stories. Not to say that tragedies don’t happen - Iraq is a war zone - but there is so much more happening that gets overlooked if not ignored.”

We are winning this war. More importantly, we will leave Iraq far better than we found it. When the Iraqi people achieve a democratically elected government on January 30, we will have changed the dynamics of the region in ways that were unimaginable prior to our intervention. The Iraqis will have begun a journey towards peace and prosperity and in doing so our own national security will be greatly enhanced.

I guess that pretty much sums up where I stand. I’m in favor of freedom and democracy. The time has come to stop the rancor and name calling and simply choose sides. So I leave you with this simple question: Where do you stand?

(crossposted at The Wide Awakes)

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