Ah, the sound of sil…

Ah, the sound of silence.

Skeptics of President Bush’s attempt to bring democracy to Iraq have been largely silent since Iraqis enthusiastically turned out for Sunday’s elections.

Billionaire Bush-basher George Soros and left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore were among critics of the administration’s Iraq policy who had no comment after millions of Iraqis went to the polls in their nation’s first free elections in decades.

And before any cheap shots are taken, no, I’m not suggesting that these guys shouldn’t be allowed to speak. It’s just that when they do, it’s mostly audio air pollution. Sunday’s elections in Iraq further proved how wrong they have been. And they’re not alone.

The Carter Center determined that the security situation in Iraq was going to be too dangerous to send election monitors, so the Atlanta-based human rights organization founded by former President Jimmy Carter posted its personnel in neighboring Jordan.

Despite widespread predictions of spectacular terrorist attacks on election day in Iraq, fewer than 50 were killed, and the 60 percent turnout for the elections was much higher than many predicted.

Asked whether the Carter Center had a comment on the election, spokeswoman Kay Torrance said: “We wouldn’t have any ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ statement on Iraq.”

Mr. Carter told NBC’s “Today” show in September that he was confident the elections would not take place. “I personally do not believe they’re going to be ready for the election in January … because there’s no security there,” he said.

While I do take some enjoyment knowing what frustration must be going through their minds, you’d think they could muster some sort of approving comment about taking the first halting steps toward democracy. But nothing. They were a lot louder before, of course.

Mr. Soros, the Open Society Institute founder who contributed millions of dollars to groups seeking to prevent Mr. Bush’s re-election, had denounced as a “sham” the administration’s plans for a democratic Iraq.

“To claim that we are invading Iraq for the sake of establishing democracy is a sham, and the rest of the world sees it as such,” Mr. Soros said in a Washington speech in March 2003, adding that “the trouble goes much deeper.”

“It is not merely that the Bush administration’s policies may be wrong, it is that they are wrong,” Mr. Soros said in the speech. “Because we are unquestionably the most powerful, [the Bush administration claims] we have earned the right to impose our will on the rest of the world.”

I don’t think we imposed anything on 8 million voters; it looked to me and most of the world that they were enjoying their newly given freedom. The only people put upon were Hussein and the militant Islamists who have no use for democracy. Given their intent to actually impose their will on the populace, I’m surprised (or not) that Soros didn’t have more to say about them.

Mr. Soros’ Web site (www.georgesoros.com) has no reference to the Iraqi elections. Its latest comments are in a Jan. 26 op-ed article on what Mr. Soros calls Mr. Bush’s “ambitious” second inaugural address.

“Mr. Soros has not released any statements about the elections in Iraq,” said Soros spokesman Michael Vachon. “He has been traveling since Sunday on various foundation projects and hasn’t had occasion to comment.”

Has he really been too busy to mention the first free election in a country in 50 years (a country central to the news of the past 2 years)? Seems like a convenient cop-out.

Soros called the plans for democracy a “sham”, and they obviously weren’t. No apologies? Nope. As Hugh Hewitt has noted, failure in these kinds of people–failure in their predictions and policies, over and over again–means nothing to those who listen to them.

There has been no comment since the Iraq elections from Mr. Moore, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker who characterized the Iraqi insurgents as “Minutemen,” and predicted “they will win.”

The last posting from Mr. Moore on his Web site (www.michaelmoore.com) is dated Jan. 10 and concerns “Fahrenheit 9/11” being named best dramatic movie in the People’s Choice Awards. An e-mail to Mr. Moore requesting comment was not returned.

On the day before the elections, Mr. Moore featured a link to a column in the New York Times with the headline, “A Sinking Sensation of Parallels between Iraq and Vietnam.” On the day after the elections, Mr. Moore linked to a story in the left-wing Nation magazine titled “Occupation Thwarts Democracy.”

Moore is uncharacteristically tongue-tied these days, and the best he can muster are links to doom-and-gloom writers from the left. The man’s positively rooting (if quietly) for the bad guys. No wonder he can’t show his face when the man in the white hat rides into town. Some folks, however, are taking him to task.

Moorewatch.com, a site dedicated to countering the filmmaker’s political statements, knocked Mr. Moore for “failing to acknowledge [the Iraqi people’s] achievement.”

“I find it telling that the man who has lamented such great concern for the kite-flying, tea-sipping Iraqi people featured in ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ can’t be bothered to string together a few words of admiration for those same people who braved the threat of death to cast their votes this past weekend,” the anti-Moore Web site said. “It seems Moore only admires the Iraqi people when they validate his agenda of hating George Bush.”

Of course, that’s what it’s all about anyway; hating George Bush. Moore and Carter sat next to each other at the Democratic National Convention, and now these bosom buddies can’t be bothered to report good news solely because of who’s sitting in the Oval Office.

However, there are signs that not all those on the left are incapable of a little introspection.

Some administration critics, however, saw the Iraqi elections as reason to revise their opinion of Mr. Bush.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown, who has consistently opposed Mr. Bush and the war in Iraq, wrote for yesterday’s edition that “it’s hard to swallow,” but “what if it turns out Bush was right, and we were wrong?”

The Chicago columnist wrote that he was struck by “television coverage from Iraq that showed long lines of people risking their lives by turning out to vote, honest looks of joy on so many of their faces.”

“If it turns out Bush was right all along, this is going to require some serious penance,” Mr. Brown wrote.

It’s not known if Messrs. Carter, Soros and Moore understand this concept.

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