'Suicide voters' the real heroes in Iraq

The Misanthrope by ETHAN CHATAGNIER

Last week, a co-worker of mine referred gravely to those Iraqis planning to vote as suicide voters. Following the months of bombings and kidnappings designed to strike fear into the hearts of those same potential voters, that assessment was hard to argue with.

Mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades struck near polling places Sunday, and isolated bombings succeeded in killing at least 35 of those who had defied the brutal tactics of the insurgence.

Thankfully, these attacks were not as sweeping and well-orchestrated as many, myself included, had feared.

Perhaps insurgents realized election day was too late for intimidation. On this day, the effectiveness of their campaign would be seen.

It is hard to imagine in our own nation, where Midwesterners far from any tactical location claim to feel the fear of an impending terrorist attack, that those specifically targeted for terror could walk through the streets to polling locations.

Low voter turnout in U.S. elections — from apathetic college students like ourselves — casts a bit of a pall over our own democratic process. The past two presidential elections were commonly talked of as a choice between the lesser of two evils.

With many Americans, especially the young, just not finding the time to vote, or not feeling informed enough to vote, Iraq looks by contrast like a model of democratic spirit.

Some Iraqis proudly displayed ink-stained fingers, evidence of their votes, for American television. As fear had it, this ink blot might be the mark of death. Our own cheesy “I voted” stickers don’t quite carry the same weight.

How many of us would have put our lives on the line to vote for John Kerry or George W. Bush? Not many, I’d expect. In a democracy as longstanding as this, the power of the vote gets watered down.

We know that if we don’t vote, someone else (someone smarter and better informed) will make the decision for us. We opt out of self-rule for the comfort of majority rule.

What we are seeing in Iraq is the phenomenon of new democracy, where the citizens have not yet lost sight of the power of their individual voices.

Many, through the course of this war, have been called heroes. Some of the greatest were in the streets yesterday. Suicide voters. Some of them waving fingers that made them targets.

The power in this story comes from a citizenry that fights against terror not with arms but with resilience — who use their votes as their weapons.

It’s premature to say that democracy will take root in Iraq, or that the insurgence will now die down. Our justification for this war is still debatable, at best.

But regardless of your politics and your stance on the war, these are people to honor: people willing to risk their lives for what might be just a glimmer of a chance at a better world.