Contributor’s Note: I personally know some of the soldiers who are over there in Iraq and Afghanistan and through the past years I’ve been sending them stuff like hand-warmers and toothbrushes my students donated along with my letters. Every time I saw a number on the news concerning the new death toll of American soldiers, always a heavy feeling settled on my chest. Was it John, was it Harold? I didn’t and don’t really support the war itself but I sincerely support our troops there, fighting in a foreign land for their country and the world’s people. Every year, it seemed to get better and better despite the bitter 4,000 or so American deaths along with the tens of thousands Iraqi deaths, then finally as I see the 2010 Iraqi elections with its brave voters I pray and hope that soldiers of our families can leave for America as President Obama promised.

We saw hints of the Iraqi elections in the news, on television, on the Internet and as we waited for Sunday we saw threats from al-Qaeda addressing Iraqi voters. Bombs and shells killed civilians, injuring even more yet the people of Iraq kept voting and turning out on the streets displaying obvious courage as a nation, not as Sunni or Shi’ite, and giving a display of hope for other nations most of all America which invested a considerable amount of money into the once dictatorial state. This move away from loathing and killing each other because of religious differences is also reflected in the voting as the Sunnis are not boycotting the elections like they did in 2005, an event that held gloomy outlook for Iraq as a nation. Moreover we saw progress compared to five years ago.

Among the top factors for the reduced casualties in Iraq along with the highly improved security are of course the Iraqi security forces which have ten times improved allowing voters to feel relatively safe to come out leading to a mass turnout of voters. It was a good day to witness an obviously brave people practice their basic and democratic rights even though they were threatened and that this was a huge step for them as a nation transitioning into a democracy. Although our troops died fighting for such events to occur, there were bumps on the road such as the internal conflicts between the Kurds and the rest that made me feel our troops died in vain. On the other hand (perhaps I am naïve for saying this) this exchange of bullets for ballots may have been worth all the brave soldiers’ sacrifices, American and non-American.

Extremists including the members of al-Qaeda inflicted casualties but far less than what they used to giving a reason for the anticipated U.S withdrawal to occur from Iraq late this year into 2011. People I’ve talked to are very unsure if this withdrawal may occur or not. Most of them shrug and say it will be very gradual because, well, because it’s the Middle East. Some of them are skeptical and point out that U.S troops are still stationed in well-developed countries like Germany and that our troops won’t be leaving for a long time from Iraq, an argument also arose that democracy will never work with such diverse groups that have abnormal hate for each other.

Painfully I cannot choose outright between the two, although our country have tried to lay out all the infrastructure for the Iraqi people to take care of themselves; government corruption is still rampant, the economy is unfavorable, but again there is still a small hope. Anyone can tell that the withdrawal won’t be immediate, today has shown another side of Iraq, that security is not tight as it should be, deaths still occurred despite the Iraqi security force’s attempts and extremism still has shelter inside this country, enough to inflict deaths and undermine efforts to establish a central government which is faintly improbable as Sunni, Shi’ite, and Kurd factions face off in both the parliamentary elections and armed conflicts. I earnestly hope that our soldiers, no matter how gradual the withdrawal, will still come back home, even though Iraq still shivers at the touch of extremism in the forms of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

We cannot forget admist all this conflict of blaming and fighting, that we still owe our soldiers who went over there to Iraq our deepest gratitude and heaven help us if we treat them as we did to our Vietnam War veterans! Such normal people volunteered and performed extraordinary deeds to produce this event that may or may not be fruitful for everyone involved. Whether or not this event will be fruitful or not, we will still have to wait out and see.

Contributed By: Charles H.