The finger.

THE Iraqi people on January 30 stuck a finger in the eye of the country's vicious insurgents and its former jackbooted rulers. The finger was stained in the purple ink that signified participation in Iraq's first true election in 50 years.

How many American GIs and decent Iraqis--including government officials and election workers targeted for murder--have lost their lives to make this election day possible? The Iraqis took a step toward redeeming all those terrible losses. Which is just one reason the spectacle of Iraqis lining up to vote, and sometimes cheering and dancing with joy, was so moving.

President Bush's determination to see the election through amid calls for its delay, and his faith that Iraqis would make a strong civic statement in favor of a better country, were both shown to be courageous and far-sighted. America's willful defeatists--led by Sen. Ted Kennedy, who chose to declare our cause all but lost just days before this historic vote--look particularly puny in light of the millions who turned out to vote because they believe in the new Iraq.

Yes, there were problems. Sunni turnout appears to have been disappointing. But this does not necessarily signal broad Sunni disenchantment with the political process. Many Sunnis, living in the most chaotic and insurgency-ridden areas, were simply frightened away from the polls. There will be many chances to bring responsible Sunni leaders into the process. The mechanisms for the selection of a three-person presidential council, the appointment of a prime minister, and the writing and approval by referenda of a permanent constitution are all designed to emphasize consensus and coalition politics.

The unified Shiite slate formed by Ayatollah Sistani won big, prompting critics to warn that Iraq was going to go the way of Iran. Such fears are overblown. The Iraqi Shiite clerical establishment, as represented by Sistani, is suspicious of the Iranian theocratic model and appears determined to forge something different. The slate's leaders have said that the new transitional government will be secular (there are fewer than a dozen clerics on the slate's long list of candidates)--even if the constitution will inevitably incorporate more religious elements than Western liberals would want. They have also been extremely solicitous of the country's Sunni leadership, making every effort to extend an olive branch. It is important to note that the slate itself is no monolithic force. It encompasses 22 different political parties, and its unity will be strained by the inevitable pressures of forming a new government.

There will still be violence in Iraq and grim news, as we have already seen. But the election could be an important step toward sapping the energy of the insurgency. Insurgencies ultimately succeed or fail on their political appeal. On Election Day, Iraqis had a choice between Sistani's admonition to vote and Zarqawi's warning that democracy is evil. Sistani won. Most Iraqis have come down on the side of decency and modernity in the battle over the future of Islam on which so much depends. There are signs that Iraqis fed up with Zarqawi's mayhem are beginning to give up important information about his network. Thus, two of the most important ingredients to beating the insurgency--a political process that marginalizes it and good intelligence gathering that imperils it--are increasingly evident.

The Bush administration and the American public should maintain realistic expectations of what will result from the election in the near term: a government vastly better than Saddam's and better than any other Arab regime, but one that still falls short of Western norms. Iraqi society is tribal, deeply religious, and ethnically divided, and its government will reflect these characteristics. American troops can be proud of what they have already achieved. But they have more work ahead. They must keep grinding down the insurgency until Iraqi security services can do it on their own.

Realism and patience, in short, will be just as necessary going forward as they have been over the last difficult and often heartbreaking year. But January 30, 2005, is a day to be remembered, a day of celebration. This year, springtime came early to Iraq.