In Iraq, The Color Of The Day Is Purple
By Vincent Fiore (02/02/05)
Proudly holding aloft his index finger brandishing the color purple, a goldsmith from the town of Najaf, Muhammad Abdul-Ridha said “We feel now that we are human beings living in this country. Now I feel I have a responsibility, I have a vote.”
For the color purple signified that, as a Iraqi citizen, a vote was cast for a candidate in Iraq’s first full, fair and free election in half a century.
From President Bush, all of America, and indeed, the entire free world, welcome Muhammad, to freedom. Welcome to Democracy.
Some eight million Iraqis went to the polls on Sunday, voting at a country-wide percentage that may exceed 60%, higher than this past November’s election for president in the U.S.A.
Iraqi people like Muhammad braved the depraved yearnings of death and chaos by terrorist and insurgents to make history, in a journey that has unfolded before the eyes of millions of Arabs throughout the Middle East.
Throughout the course of the day, the insurgency claimed a price of 35 lives. This does not include the nine lives of the terrorist that carried out these senseless suicide bombings.
The free people of Iraq unequivocally showed America--who needed to be shown--just why the lives of some 1400 of their sons and daughters were tragically necessary to make this day possible.
By voting in mass on Sunday, Iraqis vowed to honor the memory and sacrifice of America’s martyrs, those of the Armed Forces, by proceeding to exercise a right that these selfless yet magnificent souls fought and died for.
Yes, it was for Iraq that American blood was spilled throughout its deserts, but it was for more than that. It was for the ideals of liberty and freedom.
Through the mortar shells and bullets, freedom won. Through the death threats and boycotts, freedom won.
Through the hyperventilating left’s doom and gloom scenarios, freedom won. Through Senator Ted Kennedy’s malicious attack on his country, its president, and its armed forces three days before the Iraqi election, freedom won.
Through the mainstream media editorial rooms that painted a picture of Election Day in Iraq that dripped long rivulets of red, freedom won.
So even now, as joyous Iraqis dance and sing through the streets, waving their purple fingers, this badge of courage worn by millions of Shiites, Kurds, and Sunnis throughout Iraq, they know that the fight for freedom will go on.
America knows this as well, and will see it through.
As one of America’s greatest champions of freedom, Ronald Reagan once said, “Let it never be said of this generation of Americans that we became so obsessed with failure that we refused to take risks that could further the cause of peace and freedom in the world.”
Today in Iraq, the cause of peace and freedom has been advanced, and will continue to be advanced. Men like Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush, have seen the transformational power of freedom, while men like Senator Ted Kennedy can only wallow within the confines of partisan politics. Men like Kennedy know no more about freedom than they do about decency. For them, party politics is all of life.
The sounds of freedom and liberty are drowning out the guns of tyranny and the gaggle of naysayers. It is a sound that can be heard from the mosques of Saudi Arabia to the bazaars of Iran.
But Muhammad Abdul-Ridha of Najaf knows freedom, and today he and millions of his countrymen celebrate it: “Things will go right if people leave us alone to do what we want to do. If they leave the Iraqi people to decide for themselves, things will get better.”
Today in Iraq, the color of the day, freedom’s color, is purple.
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