It's not
a revolt led by generals with tanks or by millenarian terrorists,
but a democratic revolution led by Iraqi men and women braving
terrorist threats and bombs to vote.
Democratic
politics, emerging in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine, are providing
an alternative to the afflictions of war, terror and tyranny.
That evil trio has dominated Central Asia and the Middle East,
spilling blood, sapping economic progress and destroying hope.
Afghanistan,
with its October 2004 presidential election, can lay claim to
the War on Terror's first democratic electoral success. The nation,
wracked by three decades of war, a Russian invasion and Taliban
theo-fascism, has made astounding progress.
Last week,
an ABC News survey of Afghanistan touched on several of that nation's
extensive developmental problems. Six out of 10 households lack
electricity. Fifty percent of Afghan households make less than
500 dollars a year. Afghanis think cultivating opium poppies is
justifiable if farmers lack economic alternatives.
The political
opinion half of the poll suggests Afghanis foresee brighter prospects,
however. ABC reported "77 percent of Afghans say their country
is headed in the right direction -- compared with 30 percent in
the vastly better-off United States. Ninety-one percent prefer
the current Afghan government to the Taliban regime, and 87 percent
call the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban good for their country.
Osama bin Laden, for his part, is as unpopular as the Taliban;
nine in 10 view him unfavorably."
Remember
the voices of defeatism and pessimism in the fall of 2001? They
swore that Afghanistan would be a "quagmire," a "Himalayan
Vietnam." Bin Laden was a hero offering jihadist utopia,
and his anti-Western message would sweep the Muslim world. Utter
blarney and balderdash. Military victory in Afghanistan paved
the way for political and economic reformation.
However,
the dark source of the War on Terror lies in the dysfunctional
political systems of the Arab Muslim world.
For decades,
the Arab street (a violent drag controlled by tyrants, their power
enforced by terror) kept Arab reformers in the Arab alley or the
Arab jail. The Arab street also has served as a theater for choreographed
displays of anger. Addressing the real sources of Arab deprivation
and degradation -- autocratic oppression and systemic corruption
-- was forbidden. Arab reformers either shut up, went into exile
or were assassinated.
That's no
longer the case. The successful, history-shaping, liberating war
in Iraq has begun to "free the street." It isn't free
yet. Theo-fascist and Saddamite bombs strike Baghdad every day.
Syrian assassins, trying to stop Lebanon's democratic movements,
are murdering Lebanese democrats. Reformers know these acts of
terror are attempts to "turn back the clock" and return
control of "the street" to the dictators.
Despite
the violence, Iraqis and Palestinians are creating democratic
alternatives. The world's free people need to encourage the Iraqis
and Palestinians, not disparage them with defeatist rhetoric and
myopic pessimism.
Iraq's and
Palestine's victories, no matter how incremental, must be recognized
and rewarded.
That's because
the democratic revolt's biggest payoffs are at least 10 to 15
years away.
A long haul?
Indeed, 15 years is a large chunk of an individual's lifetime.
However, in terms of fundamental political and economic reformation,
it's no eon.
Peace, the
rule of law and steady, honest leadership will make Iraq one of
the wealthiest countries in the region. It has water, agriculture,
a source of capital (oil) and a population willing to work. Palestine
lacks Iraq's natural resources, but Palestinians are aggressive
entrepreneurs. Babylon and Bethlehem make Iraq and Palestine prime
tourist destinations.
What's in
it for the United States? Democratic nations police terror --
they don't promote it. And that amounts to victory in the War
on Terror.
