Cynics on Liberty

"They don't want Democracy." This has been said to me, with a huff of resignation, by people who are firmly against everything that has taken place in Iraq.

These naysayers may feel like support for liberty in Iraq makes them somehow complicit with the policies of the Bush administration. And it's empirically obvious that some people indeed do not want democracy - al-Zarqawi and his brigade of disgruntled Sunni bombers. So for some it's enough to conclude that "they" must not want it.

This conclusion is then insured with the notion that any half-successful elections will be strictly the result of manipulation by the United States. Or a cynical (but not unprecedented) assumption is made that they will elect a crop of brutal thugs.

We'll know by Sunday. Expatriates have already started voting. Handicappers on all sides are already predicting the outcome. And network bigfeet have been flown in for coverage - which will certainly be a good story; A mix of ballots, bloodshed and bravery in a country recently ruled by tyrants.

From Bunker Hill, to Soweto, to Kabul - liberty has never taken root with ease. Iraq is risky and unique only because the bloodshed has usually been finished beforehand - not because the citizens are intrinsically less deserving.