Locked, Cocked and Ready to Rock! Jan 9th and Jan. 30

Austin Bay, who just returned from Iraq, has this reminder: Jan 9th Palestinians go to the polls and Jan 30th Iraqis get to cast their first vote in their lifetime. The forces of evil will be out in full regalia with their vote to force the people to remain slaves to dictators. They will not succeed. The outcome is not predetermined yet all know what is at stake: the death of all dictators. The forces of evil know that once a slave gets a whiff of freedom all hell breaks loose.

But they are going to fail. Even if Iraq's election shifts to February (unlikely, since Iraqi leaders such as Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani oppose any delay), the ultimate vote will produce a triumph for the oppressed.

For years, the Arab street (a violent drag controlled by tyrants, their power enforced by terror) kept Arab moderates and democratic reformers in the Arab alley or the Arab jail. The Arab street also has served as a theater for choreographed displays of anger, usually directed at Israel and America. Addressing the real sources of Arab deprivation and degradation, autocratic oppression and systemic corruption, was verboten.

America's reaction to 9-11 -- specifically, its strategic offensive reaction -- is taking the gun out of hands of tyrants and terrorists. Removing Saddam Hussein began the reconfiguration of the politically dysfunctional Arab Muslim Middle East -- a dangerous, expensive process, but one that gives Middle Eastern moderates the chance to build states where the consent of the governed creates legitimacy and where terrorists are prosecuted, not promoted.