Fear and Loathing in SF

I watched the images and news coming out of Iraq today, on the day of their first post-Saddam elections, and among the many thoughts I had was this. Many of us who supported the war said that when the coalition forces liberated Baghdad and took out Saddam, the people of Iraq would be dancing in the streets. Though that did happen a bit, there wasn't much of it from what we could see. Today, though, the people of Iraq did one better-they came into the streets, braved the threat of Islamic terror and did the most American of things I could imagine-they voted. They weren't stopped by the threat of violence and, contrary to the bleatings of the mainstream media (especially the NY Times editorial page, which seemed to take joy in predicting that these elections would be a failure, one which must be pinned on President Bush), the elections were an incredible success.

So that brought me back to thinking about the Bay Area and how this was one of the centers of anti-war liberal "protests" (more like street riots). I flashed back on the images of the smug liberals, turning Market Street in SF into a left wing party (i.e., a public protest) as they denounced Bush, America and everything related to the war in Iraq. And I thought...if it were up to those people (and I use the term loosely), if there had been an election in Iraq today, the choices would have been Saddam or Saddam.

The silence of the left is deafening, as Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and now Iraq have free elections. As the American left marches in the streets against Bush and the war against terror, the very countries (or entities, in the Palestinian case) that were the center of terror are turning to democracy. Funny how that worked, isn't it? And that brings me to this...the email I sent this morning to a liberal/left (and I use those terms interchangeably in the Bay Area, as there isn't much of a difference between the two here). I have to copy the entire thing here, as I think it makes the point better than anything I could write:




"Sunday, January 30, 2005. Iraq's first free election in modern times. Courtesy of the US. These are Iraqi voters proudly displaying the ink stain that shows they voted.

Iraq Today

And here is a handicapped Iraqi who was so determined to vote that he found a way to get to the polls...

Iraq Today

And for comparison...here is an image from your beloved San Francisco, showing what your fellow Democrats were thinking of the war that allowed for the above to happen:

SF  
Gee, who is out of touch, dude? Sounds like war WAS the answer. You really should be ashamed of your party and your city, dude. A bunch of smug liberals who have no idea how the world works."