Interesting Piece on Iraqi Sovereignty

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After Interior Ministry Col. Musab al-Awadi was assassinated, the word on the street was interesting.

"We blame the government for the lack of security," Mohammed Ahmed al-Ethawi said, still tidying his tiny shop after the mayhem subsided. "It took half an hour for the police to come. How is this safety?"

The article points out that al-Ethawi did not say "We blame the Americans." The upshot is not that Iraq has become an international haven for peace and brotherhood, but rather that it is becoming an actual nation, standing on its own legs, and learning to walk. All much faster than the Americans ever predicted.

The reporter observes that this can be good or bad news. On the one hand, the argument that Iraq has a puppet government is increasingly weak. On the other hand, the more independent Iraq is, the more independent Iraq is. We have no guarantees, people, especially if we are seriously committed to letting Iraq choose its own leaders and pursue its own path. And we are. And that's not a bad thing, really. Because the question, "What if Iraq picks a leader who is unfriendly to us?" can be asked of any nation. What if Spain elects a socialist who withdraws all support from the coalition? What if Italy elects an anti-war leader? What if England does? What if France ... er, well, you get the point. Freedom is always a risk. It's always a roll of the dice. Here in America, we are perfectly free to elect our leaders. This November, we are free to pick a president who is serious about fighting terror and who values the individual liberty protected by lower taxes, or we can pick a president who wants to tax the vaguely defined "rich," appeases terrorists, and beg the French for forgiveness on bended knees. And the risk we take in that decision is part of our freedom.

So what's different in Iraq? Now the Iraqis get to take part in that same freedom - the freedom to choose tyranny again, or the freedom to choose democracy. True, they might make the wrong choice. But unlike under Saddam, they actually get to make that choice. Every American, every Italian, Britton, El Salvadoran, Pole, Australian, etc. (it's a long list) can feel proud that their country helped make that freedom possible.