The Bush administration looks like it has finally scored a ringing success in Iraq. But, if one objective of Sunday's elections was to help defeat Iraq's ongoing insurgencies, then the exercise failed. The question now is how Iraq's next government will handle the insurgents. Before Sunday, they threatened voters. But U.S. troops led the effort to secure polling stations, while more than half of Iraq's eligible voters defied insurgent threats and exercised their first real chance for self-empowerment in history.

After several days in a prison near Baghdad in 1991, I was told "they" wanted to see me. Blindfolded, I was led into a room where, judging from the voices, there were at least half a dozen men. For days, I had heard and sometimes watched as guards beat and tortured Iraqi prisoners. The translator asked what my "real job"...