A NEW IRAQ HAS BEEN BORN

What an historic and unprecedentant day this has been for Iraqis and in the Arab world.

Many have wondered, is there, within each of us, a universal yearning to vote and determine our future through representative gov't,? Today that question has been answered as millions of Iraqis turned out to begin to implement the first step towards determining their own future, and some did so under the all to real threat of death.

Some walked for miles, some came in wheelchairs, some came with canes, but they ALL lined up, they ALL voted, and the images of them doing that, and of them smiling and jumping with excitement after they had cast their vote, will remain with me forever.

Freedom is intoxicating!

I shed tears of sadness, and tears of joy, as I watch this HISTORIC day unfold in Iraq.

This day has come about with much loss of life, for deployed Americans, coalition members, and Iraqi security forces, all of them heros in my eyes, and they will not be forgotten.

Sadly some Iraqis died while trying to exercise their right to vote, and they too are my heros: ordinary people who risked their lives to do something that WE take for granted: VOTE

Today, all their deaths are being honored as millions of Iraqi's vote, and as the seeds of democracy and freedom take root.

FREEDOM IS MORE POWERFUL THAN FEAR AND THE POWER OF THE BALLOT HAS OVERCOME THE POWER OF THE GUN!

Let that message ring loudly throughout the Arab nations, and ring even louder in the ears of the terrorists!

A NEW IRAQ HAS BEEN BORN!