Iraqis voted Sunday. Freely. Democratically. And, relatively, peacefully.

Liberals and conservatives can debate ad nauseam the right or wrongness of this war and the ideology that beget it, but there is only good that can be said about the Iraqi people after this weekend’s election of a 275-seat national assembly. Indeed, anyone who believes in democracy must feel a great sense of wonderment and inspiration after this weekend’s developments in that faraway desert.

Americans — not Democrats, not Republicans, but Americans — could learn a lot about the true meaning of democracy after seeing Iraqis practice it so fearlessly Sunday.

The Independent Election Commission of Iraq estimated Sunday after the polls closed that 8 million people cast votes — between 55 and 60 percent of those registered. In many places, voters cast their ballots despite near-constant explosions and small arms fire echoing through polling-place walls. Agence France-Presse reported 30 civilians and six police officers were killed in election-day attacks.

The turnout nearly equals the 60.7 percent of registered American voters who cast ballots for George W. Bush or John Kerry last November, when the biggest polling-place threats came from over-zealous exit-poll takers.

And after voting, residents of Baghdad and other cities reportedly crowded the streets, where they celebrated by playing soccer, talking, laughing and proudly displaying the ink-stained fingers they used to vote. In the United States, an “I voted” sticker passes for celebration of democracy.

These elections seem to show that Iraqis truly understand democracy — the power it instills in the individual and joy that comes with self-determination. That’s something the usually apathetic American voter should take to heart.

Sunday’s success is by no means proof that President Bush’s high ideals are feasible or that his defiant actions are right — there is still an insurgency to be destroyed, a constitution to be written and three disagreeing populations to be pacified before we can decide that. But that success certainly marks a special moment and should be an inspiration not only to the people of the world still living in an authoritarian regime like the one Iraqis recently escaped, but to those living in free societies and not taking full advantage of the rights their citizenship affords them.

Time will only tell if this precocious display of democracy amounts to something valid and permanent in Iraq, but it is a wonderful start and should be appreciated as such.