Let's assume, "rabid anonymous guest," that the Iraqis really did go to the polls out of fear. They had plenty of candidates to choose from, and they could leave their ballot blank if they wished to. So unless the count shows millions and millions of blank ballots, the election still shows support for democracy.

Some voted out of fear, but most undoubtedly voted out of a combination of pride, faith in the Coalition, and in defiance of the Saddamite torturers, nationalist revenge seekers, and brainwashed suicide bombers and terrorists who are the authors of all the current violence in Iraq.

Any decent Iraqi who served in Saddam's military, and any member of their families, knows what it meant when the Coalition let the soldiers go home without parole or supervision rather than do what all nations usually do: demand an official surrender and put all the POWs in cages for weeks or months until they can be ID'd and released.

War is always hideous, but the United States and its allies have waged this one with a level of restraint that is unparalleled in history.