Historic Day in Afghanistan

"This is one of the happiest days of my life," said Sayed Aminullah as he cast his vote at Eid Gah Mosque in the capital.

"I don't care about the result. All I care is that we are having an election. This is a sign that things are improving for Afghanistan."

Today, Afghanistan peacefully held its first, free presidential election. The above "shivers-down-the-spin" quote gives us a glimpse into the hearts of many hopeful Afghans of a life free of oppression from Islamic facists and corrupt dictators. However, like all man-made institutions, there are a few glitches:

Afghanistan's historic presidential election closed on Saturday without any of the feared large-scale violence, but the vote was thrown into turmoil when most candidates said a flawed process made the poll invalid.

All 15 of President Hamid Karzai's rivals said they were withdrawing from the election because systems to prevent illegal multiple voting had gone awry. The move effectively left Karzai as the only candidate in the fray.

Election officials refused to halt the process, which appeared to have been embraced enthusiastically by most voters across the rugged Islamic nation despite fears that many would be too afraid to participate.

Election officials were required to use permanent pens to mark the fingers of those who had already voted in order to avoid multiple votes by a single voter. Afghan election officials feared that Taliban militants were seeking ways to rig the election. The controversy began with the discovery that some election officials were using pens with ink that could be washed off. However, the boycott may have already been in the works:

Afghan affairs expert and author Ahmed Rashid said: "There were irregularities, no doubt about it, but the opposition boycott was probably pre-planned and they jumped aboard the ink issue when it emerged.

If these candidates are serious about looking ahead to the parliamentary elections, or looking for a position in the cabinet, or looking to help Afghanistan in the future, there will have to be some compromise."

This doesn't sound like it will be a major issue in the long run. Let's rejoice with the Afghanistan people as they just held a highly anticipated election without any violence erupting. This is a clear blow to the Islamofacists who, with western leftist sympathizers, have been telling us the United States was losing in Afghanistan.

Dear Afghanistan,
Welcome to the imperfect, free democratic world. Godspeed to you.

Dear Iraq,
You're up next.