Over a year ago, David Brooks wrote a controversial column claiming that America needed to lose for the Iraqis to win. The logic of the column was compelling to many. The Iraqis as a people had nothing to take pride in. Their country was liberated by outsiders. The only way for them to regain (or gain for the first time) their self-confidence as Iraqis, Brooks’ theory went, was for them to shake off the Americans. I didn’t think he was right, but I thought he grasped a fundamentally correct fact: the Iraqis did/do need something in their narrative which makes them the heroes, not the Americans. If these people really show up to the polls in large numbers, they’ll have exactly the heroic story they need. I think everybody should be hoping they muster the very real courage required.