Introspection is not the purpose of this occasional column, but a moment ofit seems appropriate in the wake of the election recently held in Iraq. Thatelection might have been a blood-soaked fiasco, aborted by insurgent forces. Itmight have been a nonevent, with sparse turnout and sullen voters. It might havebeen well attended but still inexpressive and mysterious, a merely formalexercise whose meaning was hard to interpret. But none of these eventualities --which pretty much represented the range of my expectations -- transpired.Instead, the election was a full-throated, long-suppressed cry by millions ofoppressed and abused people against tyranny, torture, terrorism, penury, anarchyand war, and an ardent appeal for freedom, peace, order and ordinary life.