Iraq and 1776

Imagine if you will the day when an Iraqi will take it into his head to write about these elections this past Sunday -- the date on which the people of Iraq -- against threat of personal and family injury -- commenced to form their day of independence. It reminds me of what John Adams wrote about that steamy July day in 1776 when the Continental Congress adopted a resolution on American independence?

"I am apt to believe," Adams exulted in a letter from Philadelphia to his wife Abigail in Massachusetts, "that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance. . . . It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forevermore."

Who would think of greeting Iraqi elections with such jubilation? After all, as the papers and the TV talking heads keep instructing us, Iraq is beset by problems. Sovereignty or no sovereignty, insurgents' bombs daily claim new victims, hospitals are desperately short of medicine, power blackouts last for hours, oil production has been crippled by sabotage, and terrorists cross the border with impunity. So why would January 31, 2005 be anything to celebrate?

Well, why was July 4, 1776, anything to celebrate? Declaration of Independence or no Declaration of Independence, the American colonies were a mess. American troops were ill-trained and poorly equipped, they were fighting a military superpower, the economy was a shambles, inflation was about to worsen into hyperinflation, and thousands of colonials loyal to the enemy -- Tories -- were taking up arms and committing sabotage in order to undermine the American cause.

Sixteen months after George Washington took command of the Continental Army, things were far worse in America than in Iraq. American forces were experiencing "a series of traumatic defeats. They'd lost every single battle since the Declaration of Independence, and had depleted 90 percent of their military strength in heavy fighting. Most of the remaining soldiers declared they were going to go home when their enlistments expired, and in many parts of the new nation, citizens were pledging fresh oaths of allegiance to the tyrant King George."

So was Adams simply deluded, to be rhapsodizing about "the great anniversary festival" that should be celebrated "from this time forward forevermore?" Did he really not understand just how dire the American predicament was?

He understood.

"You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not," his letter to Abigail continued. "I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction."

Posterity did indeed triumph in the "transaction" of July 4, 1776. With luck and hard work -- and with some of the faith and fervor that sustained John Adams -- the posterity of today's newly liberated Iraqis will likewise triumph in the election of January 30, 2005.