Dancing Iraqis

There's a wonderful piece in James Taranto's Best of the Web, the OpinionJournal's running blogsite, on the Iraqis who fought back against the terrorists:

It's quite understandable that Iraqis would be bolder about standing up to the terrorists now than they were last year. Just over three months ago, after all, there was a possibility, no matter how remote, that John Kerry would be elected president, which could have led to an American retreat from Iraq. Iraqis naturally kept their heads down, lest they suffer the same fate as the Vietnamese allies America abandoned at Kerry's urging three decades earlier.

And of course the Iraqi election this week reinforces that freedom is here to stay--something the Iraqis understand, even if not all Americans do.

There also, as Glenn Reynolds from Instapundit has noted, a wonderful quote from Nietzsche:

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

That's a fine quote to begin a Saturday morning! I won't lie and say that those of us with friends on the sharp edge over in Iraq weren't sweating bullets over the weekend election. I certainly knew things were going to be okay when, on Sunday, I got a message relayed from Baghdad from SEAL Team 6 plankholder Denny Chalker asking for Ted Nugent memorabilia from SHOT! (The Nuge was, of course, honored to help out!)

I think in a lot of ways many, maybe most, of us — with the notable exception of George W. Bush — underestimated both the Iraqi people and the amazing powers of democracy. As Stan on South Park would say, "I think we've all learned something here today..."