A magnificent day in Iraq: Elections are cause for hope.

The following editorial appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Monday, Jan. 31:

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Here is what did not happen in Iraq on Sunday: the mass murder of voters promised by insurgents.

Here is what did happen: Men and women who have lived under tyranny for as long as they can remember risked their very lives to vote.

Here is the unexpectedly good news: All things considered, it was a magnificent day in Iraq.

Iraqis had been warned last week by the cutthroat Abu Musab al-Zarqawi that they would pay with their own blood if they dared to vote. Said the terrorist chieftain, "We have declared a bitter war against the principle of democracy and all those who seek to enact it." The choice could hardly have been clearer: democracy or religious fascism. Defying the killers, most Iraqis had the courage to choose democracy.

What a beautiful thing.