A new day in Iraq...

The election is a fantastic moment for the Muslim world.

At a time when American Democrats are adamantly proclaiming defeat (''The idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong" -- Howard Dean) and ''realists" deride the quest for Arab freedom (''You're not going to democratize Iraq" -- Brent Scowcroft), the optimism of the Iraqis is marvelous to behold. In a new poll, seven out of 10 Iraqis say their lives are going well; 69 percent expect conditions in the country to improve in the year ahead; three-quarters express confidence in this week's parliamentary elections.

Less than three years ago, Iraq was a place where dissent was crushed, freedom of speech unknown, and civil liberties nonexistent. Today it swirls and bubbles with democratic excitement. Thousands of Iraqis are running for office in this week's election. The sights and sounds of self-government -- political posters, passionate debate, radio and TV commentary, candidates pressing the flesh -- are everywhere. It is an extraordinary moment in Iraqi, and Arab, history.

''The tyrant will soon be gone," President Bush promised the Iraqi people in March 2003. ''The day of your liberation is near." Some cynics still sneer that it was really a war for oil, or for Halliburton, but Iraqis cannot afford such delusions. They know now what liberty means and will not willingly give it up.