Democracy marches through Afghanistan, Iraq<br>

By the time you read this column, which was written before election day, you will know — hopefully, at any rate — who will be president of the United States for the next four years. Whoever the winner, even if litigation is involved, there will be a peaceful, orderly inauguration in January, the 44th such assumption of power in America’s history. There will be no bloody coup d’etat, no imprisonment of dissenters, and the loser will be free to try again, as many presidential candidates have.

Despite our relative youth as a nation, this is a record unmatched anywhere else in the world. It’s a powerful example for millions who live in oppression and yearn to be free and to govern themselves.

The historic march of democracy, which accelerated rapidly after the fall of the Soviet Union, is again pressing forward, this time in a part of the world where repression masquerades not as communal utopia but as ordained theocracy.

In Afghanistan, which has suffered so mightily under both forms of tyranny, Hamid Karzai received 55 percent of the vote in the nation’s first-ever direct presidential election. The process took time but was largely peaceful, and 42 percent of voters were women — in a land where three short years ago they were deprived of even the most basic rights and freedoms by the Taliban. Karzai’s mandate puts him in a strong position to lead his people forward in the reconstruction of civil society and economic development under a constitutional system governed by the rule of law.

It would be hard to overstate the importance of this milestone for the people of Afghanistan and the broader region. Millions of Afghans ignored threats of violence by remnants of the Taliban and stood in long lines to cast their ballots. Even the nation’s notorious warlords, the Wall Street Journal noted, “appear to be accepting their country’s new democratic reality.”

Which brings us to Iraq, where an election that once seemed as improbable as Afghanistan’s is now scheduled for January. Voters there will not be selecting a president, but rather the members of a 275-seat assembly whose main task will be to draft a constitution (which will be the foundation for a second vote to be held by December 15). Even so, the occasion will be no less momentous.

The ongoing violence in Iraq is both a challenge to, and in many respects driven by, the planned January election. As in Afghanistan, Islamist terrorists are keenly aware that a successful plebiscite will deflate their efforts to impose an authoritarian theocracy. Not surprisingly, they are doing everything they can to derail it, just as they also stepped up violent attacks in Iraq in an attempt to influence the U.S. presidential election.

Despite this threat, and the cynical defeatism of many of those around the world who opposed the liberation of Iraq to begin with, the Iraqi election appears to be “on track,” in the words of Carlos Valenzuela, the United Nations’ top electoral expert in Baghdad. U.N. Chief Kofi Annan has limited the number of his staff allowed in Iraq, citing security concerns, but joint U.S.-Iraqi military operations are steadily suppressing various insurgencies so that the vote will be as comprehensive as possible. Last month Fiji offered 130 troops to protect U.N. staff — the first country to respond to Iraqi requests for additional outside help. In doing so, they profoundly shame the indifference and cowardice of many other, wealthier nations, some of which are only free today because of the sacrifice of others, whose soldiers still lie buried in their soil.

Democracy is a blessing that, once enjoyed, is not easily surrendered. The most basic act of self-government is empowering, and will boost the confidence and clout of those brave souls working to pacify and modernize Iraq, just as it has in Afghanistan. Likewise, January’s vote will be a great step forward in Iraq’s efforts to rejoin the community of civilized nations, where, like Afghanistan, it will serve as a beacon of hope and reason in a violent, fractious area of the world.