The Iraqi elections, which are coming up in two days, are going to be a historic event. This act by millions of Iraqis, in the face of violence and threats to their children and loved ones, is one act the anti-war forces will not be able to hide under a flurry of propaganda and anti-Bush rhetoric.

My eye recently caught a great idea for a blog when I ran across No End But Victory, and I thought to myself what a perfect name. What a perfect rallying cry. Simple and to the point. It is a variation on the American image coined by someone I truly admire from NASA’s glory days. Gene Krantz was the one who said “Failure is not an Option” – and it is not. Especially when success is near, turning to failure at the very end is not anyone’s idea of America and how Americans take on challenges.

We freed Europe from the tyranny of brutal dictators who killed tens of millions of people over the half century it took to beat Hitler and finally collapse the Soviet Union. We also freed Japan and the South Pacific from brutal imperialism. We freed 10-100 times the number of people who were killed by these mad and vicious people. Many innocent people died in these efforts, either in our attacks on the inhumanity, or waiting for inhumanity to fall. Today we face inhumanity again.

Iraq and the ME is one of the few places left which suffer a large amount of inhumanity. But we are finally changing that as well. We have spent our precious blood on a country that was led by a brutal dictator, who had WMD technology, and the connections to violent terrorists who could make evil use of that knowledge.

Iraqi’s have already begun to step down the path towards a new and better future. We should be rejoicing with them, cheering them on and happy in the knowledge of what they may find down that path 200 years from now. What we found was amazing, inspiring and worth dying to protect. To most of us at least.

Too many are bitter because they are not the mainstream. They feel marginal because they marginalize themselves. They do not have pride in America and what we are doing. Saddam’s mass graves are closed for business. As are his rape rooms and torture centers for children (who tortures children?). All of these crimes against humanity are now chilling historic reminders of what mankind is capable of. And what mankind is sometime afraid to face and eliminate.

But while some in the West, who have nothing at stake personally, balk and push for withdrawal, the Iraqis are demonstrating which way they want to go through their sacrifice and bravery. Iraqis are incredibly optimistic about where they are heading, even if this seems to befuddle some in the media:

The latest survey of opinion in Iraq shows a degree of optimism at variance with the usual depiction of the country as one in total chaos.

Sadly funny, this statement. It illustrates the thinking by the naysayers in the West, not so much what is happening in Iraq. The stunned shock of reality in Iraq continues on for a bit

The figures will provide evidence for supporters of the invasion and occupation to argue that the international media have got it wrong – that, despite everything, most Iraqis are wedded to a democratic future in a unified state and have faith it will come.

The findings are in line with the kind of arguments currently being deployed by President George W Bush.

In a recent speech, he referred to reconstruction and, as an example, this survey shows the rapid growth of consumer buying in Iraq, led by mobile phones and satellite television.

Then there are some weak rationalizations for why this could be nothing of historic importance

However critics will claim that the survey proves little beyond showing how resilient Iraqis are at a local level.

They will argue that it reveals enough important exceptions to the rosy assessment, especially in the centre of the country, to indicate serious dissatisfaction.

Except the truth is that even the middle of the country has made huge strides to integrate into the new, demcratic Iraq. The Sunni Clerics have been calling on the people to join their countrymen on the road to their new future. There has been a sea change in the final holdout to democracy.

We have to go to the end of the BBC story referenced above to finally get to the results of opinion polls in Iraq, leading up to the vote on Thursday:

The elections on 15 December will provide a test of all these findings. The first test will be to see if those who said they would vote (83%) actually do so. Many of these would not say who they would vote for.

There is political optimism. Seventy-six percent said they had confidence that the elections would create a stable Iraqi government, though again the figure was smaller (45%) in the Centre.

The article ends with a note of pessimism – as too many do. But have no fear. There is 70+% support for the Iraqi Army, the religious leaders and the Iraqi Police. That does not represent a civil war, a new Vietnam or a successful insurgency. It is time to realize, there is No End But Victory.

More on the Iraq elections and the naysayers by Michelle Malkin, Lori Byrd, Polipundit, Ed Morrissey and Mac Ranger

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Meant to add Dr Sanity and The Anchoress to the list of sites