Iraq - Terrorists Defeated

I remember an old saying that goes something like this: You don't have to defeat the man, just his idea. Sunday the Iraqi people defeated Z man.

Here is more proof the terrorists are defeated.

KHANAQIN, Iraq -- When Iraqi Col. Hesham Ismael spoke about the heroes behind Sunday's historic elections, it did not take him long to produce a tattered army identification card belonging to Haider Al Arkawazi. The Iraqi man joined the army in order to help his country win its freedom, but he died in a suicide bombing less than 24 hours before he was to vote in the nation's first democratic elections in 50 years.

"Freedom is not free," Col. Ismael, an Iraqi commander who lost two soldiers including Mr. Arkawazi in the suicide bombing here, said through a translator.

"Freedom needs a lot of blood," the colonel said Sunday. "We have to give something to get some, and those people who died are the blood. They are building freedom for the next generation."

One day after eight Iraqis died in Saturday's suicide bombing outside the Joint Command Center operated by both Iraqi security forces and the 278th Regimental Combat Team, citizens of this largely Kurdish town responded to the carnage by turning out in large numbers for the country's elections.

Lt. Col. Ali Kakee of the Iraqi army said the deaths hardened his resolve to exercise his new right.

"We saw a lot of those tragedies in the time of Saddam," he said, referring to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein. "They don't want this country to stand on its feet. But this is our chance to make voting successful so we won't go back."

Once Z's followers see him as a loser they will desert him like rats off a sinking ship.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------