233, 1 and 4,000
As we celebrate America's 233rd birthday, Iraq is celebrating its first "National Day." And like America's first, Iraq's first celebration takes place with the future of the country and its representative government far from secure. In 1776, the war was on and British troops were everywhere; most of the major founding documents were yet to be drafted and ratified; and the essential nature of the country still unformed. Our Civil War was far in the future.
It is tempting to look at America today and Iraq today and wonder whether Iraqis have what it takes to preserve their new and shaky consensual government. We will see, but it is surely worth considering how we got to this point - the compromises our Founding Fathers made with their ideals, the bloody and awful war that decided our national future as a single people and the 100 more years and violent upheaval required to cement the simple phrase, "All men are created equal." [It is, consequently, amazing that our President seems to think America's Civil Rights movement, which began in the 1850s, was peaceful.]
Iraq's emergence from the 35-year horror of Saddam, through the American invasion, the sectarian violence, and the careful building of an open multi-party political process with an independent media has given the Iraqi people the most representative government in the Arab world. Its elections put the fraud in Iran to shame - and don't think people in the region don't see it.
There is a long way to go. Iran and al Qaeda are still determined to impose their will on Iraq. The Sunni Arab countries have been reluctant to accept the Shiite majority of Iraq as fully Arab. And the United States has spent most of its diplomatic energy embracing thugs, excoriating Jews for building houses and treating the democratic institutions of Honduras like arms of a banana republic.
Americans will spend our national day flying flags, shooting fireworks, grilling out and remembering the brave pioneers, political leaders and citizen-soldiers who have moved us forward for 233 years, and still push our "experiment in democracy" to better serve its people. Iraqis spent theirs dancing in the streets, shooting off guns (in the air), hanging garlands of flowers - and worrying.
Iraqis and Americans have one thing in common - 4,000. More than 4,000 American men and women died for Iraq's first national day. They took nothing for themselves and their (our) government took nothing in their name. The gift they gave Iraq is beyond measure and they should be enshrined in both countries as patriots and founders.
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