We heard all the praise and superlatives for the extraordinary events of Sunday. “The best day for democracy since the fall of the Berlin Wall.” “a great day for America and a great day for freedom.” “A resounding success.”

Since 9/11, we’ve been walking around with this cloud over our heads. Every day since that dreadful morning, we know we’ve been walking around as targets, up against an enemy that was fanatical, ruthless, impossible to compromise with… and disturbingly, bafflingly popular in far-off lands. The world saw thousands of lives crushed in an instant, and a horrifying percentage of the world seemed to enjoy it.

Since then, we have won some hard-fought victories. It was great to see the Taliban routed and reassuring to see Khalid Sheik Muhammad nabbed in Pakistan, looking less like a unstoppable monster and more like John Belushi’s "cheeseburger cheeseburger cheeseburger" short-order cook. The invasion of Iraq yielded a glorious sight or two – a statue of a dictator falling to the earth, a boastful tyrant revealed to hiding in a spider hole, looking more disheveled and disoriented than Nick Nolte’s mugshot.

But we knew these were small victories in a long and ugly war.

We saw the Afghan elections a few months ago, and that was the first real glimmer of hope, the first sign that maybe we’ve figured out how to defeat not just our enemies, but their ideas. Osama bin Laden’s favorite base of operations and the land of the Taliban had a big, successful election, and a fairly pro-western candidate won. Suddenly the Afghans don’t seem so strange and threatening after all.

But maybe that was luck; maybe Afghanistan was an exception.

Now, in Iraq we see… people who like elections. Who rejoice at the chance to vote and choose their leaders. Sunni, Shia, and Kurd taking up arms to defend a polling station, not to attack it. Women voting. A region of the world that most Americans associated with hostages, angry mobs and suicide bombers, suddenly indelibly connected to the striking and hopeful symbol of the purple index finger.

Sunday? Maybe the cloud over our head lifted for the first time since 9/11. Because it wasn’t just our enemies’ bodies or organizations that were dealt a devastating blow… but their ideas.

Things could still go to heck in a hand-basket, but one has a sense that the unforgettable images of Sunday could trigger huge changes in American political thinking. Take a look at Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown:

Maybe you're like me and have opposed the Iraq war since before the shooting started — not to the point of joining any peace protests, but at least letting people know where you stood.

You didn't change your mind when our troops swept quickly into Baghdad or when you saw the rabble that celebrated the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue, figuring that little had been accomplished and that the tough job still lay ahead.

Despite your misgivings, you didn't demand the troops be brought home immediately afterward, believing the United States must at least try to finish what it started to avoid even greater bloodshed. And while you cheered Saddam's capture, you couldn't help but thinking I-told-you-so in the months that followed as the violence continued to spread and the death toll mounted.

By now, you might have even voted against George Bush — a second time — to register your disapproval.

But after watching Sunday's election in Iraq and seeing the first clear sign that freedom really may mean something to the Iraqi people, you have to be asking yourself: What if it turns out Bush was right, and we were wrong? …

Maybe the United States really can establish a peaceable democratic government in Iraq, and if so, that would be worth something.

Would it be worth all the money we've spent? Certainly.

Would it be worth all the lives that have been lost? That's the more difficult question, and while I reserve judgment on that score until such a day arrives, it seems probable that history would answer yes to that as well.

I don't want to get carried away in the moment. Going to war still sent so many terrible messages to the world…

Sunday, we caught a glimpse of the flip side. We could finally see signs that a majority of the Iraqi people perceive something to be gained from this brave new world we are forcing on them.

Instead of making the elections a further expression of "Yankee Go Home," their participation gave us hope that all those soldiers haven't died in vain.

Obviously, I'm still curious to see if Bush is willing to allow the Iraqis to install a government that is free to kick us out or to oppose our other foreign policy efforts in the region. So is the rest of the world. For now, though, I think we have to cut the president some slack about a timetable for his exit strategy.

If it turns out Bush was right all along, this is going to require some serious penance. Maybe I'd have to vote Republican in 2008.

Mark Brown is going to get a lot of angry letters for this column. But how many people who feared the Iraqis would never “get” democracy will have to rethink their views, in light of Sunday? When the topic turns to democracy in Syria, or Iran, or Egypt, or Saudi Arabia, how many people will rub their chins and think, “I thought President Bush was wrong in Afghanistan and Iraq, but now we see what happened…”