Applause for the Voters of Iraq

Re “Iraqi Turnout Trumps Violence,” Jan. 31: The Iraq election is over and we know who the winner is: the Iraqi people. Millions of Iraqis bucking danger, threats and great distances came out and voted in their first [multiparty] elections in over half a century.

The incredible fact is that 60% of the eligible voters voted in the election. The Iraqis proved they wanted democracy, and when they left the polls, the words they used to describe the day were festive, joyous and exhilaration. Let us rejoice as democracy spreads on.

Christopher Curran

Mission Viejo

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President Bush judges the election a “resounding success.” Of course it is. As was our elimination of Al Qaeda terrorists and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Bob Wieting

Simi Valley

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I commend the Iraqi people for their courage in turning out en masse for the recent elections. In their pursuit of God’s gift of freedom, these brave people risked their lives and refused to bow down to those wicked hands who strove to enslave them anew. Bravo Iraqis!

Pat Harrity

Orange

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In the wake of the success of the Iraqi elections, let’s not lose perspective. Clearly, many Iraqis have realized that they have no other option but to place their faith in America’s plan for their society. The alternative is more violence and civil war. They are participating in the elections and trying to be as positive as they can about what lies ahead.

Looking ahead, if one grants the assumption that Iraq will become a self-sustaining government within the next decade, Bush’s invasion will be known to have proved two things.

Firstly, the men and women of the U.S. armed forces have an indomitable spirit. Secondly, nation-building is an ineffective strategy for ensuring American prosperity. Bush will be seen to have ignored our country’s fundamental security issues and sacrificed our economic future in order to spread “freedom” to a desert people far away.

Bruce Gaims

Reseda

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Let’s see, a Yale degree, a master’s from Harvard, a fighter pilot, twice elected governor of Texas, twice elected president of the United States, democracy to Afghanistan, disposed of a savage dictator in Iraq, a free election in Iraq, the hope of democracy to those without. What would he be capable of if he weren’t so stupid?

Jerry Andersen

Pacific Palisades

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There is joy in the White House today because Iraq held its first free election. But never mind the fact that nearly 1,400 of America’s finest young men and women have lost their lives, that thousands upon thousands of our troops have been maimed, that nearly one-quarter of a trillion dollars of our hard-earned money has been poured into this pathetic misadventure we call a “war of liberation.” Because what really matters to George Bush is that the Iraqis get a chance to vote.

How ironic that this president who went to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the recount voting in Florida is now willing to spill the blood of our troops to make sure that all the votes are counted in Iraq. Will this nightmare ever end?

Ron Kryngel

Fresno

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Walter Mead’s article on democracy (“Each Vote Strikes at Terror,” Opinion, Jan. 30) was very objective and thought-provoking. My favorite definition of democracy is rule by majority, but justice for the minorities. Our nation literally “wrote the book” for democracies, but much has changed in the last 216 years. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, was anti-Christian, but the majority of Americans today seem to wish us to be a Christian theocracy. In Iraq, we only allowed voting for candidates acceptable to the U.S. If this works out the way we like, we may be able to withdraw our troops. If, in the future, the Iraqis vote to become an unfriendly Islamic republic, do our troops return? Democracy, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Martin J. Weisman

Westlake Village