SINCE THE British relinquished control of Afghanistan in 1919, the remote,
mountainous nation has been ruled by kings, Soviet puppets and Islamist tyrants.
On Saturday its residents cast ballots, unharmed, for a new kind of government —
one chosen and operated by the people.

Faced with the prospect of
attacks at polling places, the people showed up anyway. They were undeterred,
and perhaps their bravery disheartened the would-be terrorists lurking in the
shadows. United Nations observers contradicted the claims of opposition
presidential candidates who said the elections were compromised by
irregularities. Those candidates have since dropped their unsubstantiated
charges.

As England’s Whigs joined together to empower Parliament at the
expense of the king, so Afghanistan’s people have taken to the polls to weaken
the remnants of totalitarianism.

Saturday’s peaceful election was an
important historical event, made even more important by the lack of widespread
violence. Too bad the Big Media have decided that a successful exercise of
democracy in al-Qaida’s former hideout is hardly worth covering.