years later, former Revolutionary War Captain Daniel Shays raised an armed mob and forced the courts in Northampton, Massachusetts to shut down.  Over the next several months, the growing rebellion forced the Massachusetts Supreme Court to adjourn and attacked a federal arsenal in Springfield, before being routed by a hastily-raised army under the command of Revolutionary War hero, General Benjamin Lincoln.  At approximately the same time, another mob of armed dissidents marched on the New Hampshire State Assembly to demand changes in the state's policies regarding paper money.

These examples were by no means the only attempts to overturn the rule of law in America with threats and violence.  Even a cursory study of our country's history reveals numerous attempts to elevate mob rule over the principles of democracy.
In our culture's collective memory, the transition to self-government was peaceful and orderly.  In reality -- with armed mobs intimidating the courts, attacking federal facilities, and even threatening Congress -- the formative years of the United States were unstable and often violent.  But the nation survived its bloody and tumultuous childhood, and went on to survive a civil war that very nearly ripped it apart.

With all of the forces arrayed against it, democracy could have easily failed in this country.  Standing outside of our borders, an unbiased observer in the early years of this nation might well have given us up as a lost cause.  How could America's fragile and unproven self-government possibly survive armed internal insurrections, political infighting, economic collapse, civil war, and the assassinations of political leaders and socially prominent figures?

With the substitution of two words, that same question can be redirected toward another fledgling democracy.  How can Iraq's fragile and unproven self-government possibly survive armed internal insurrections, political infighting, economic collapse, civil war, and the assassinations of political leaders and socially prominent figures?  The answer is simple.  Iraq can survive the same way we did: by holding on to the dream that is freedom when all the forces of the universe seem to be determined to tear it away.

The people of Iraq cannot follow the example of America's smooth and easy transition to democracy, because that example is a myth.  If we think we did it the easy way, we've utterly forgotten our history.  This nation yearned for freedom, and we won it.  But liberty did not come to us easily.  We paid for it, one grueling inch at a time.  We paid for it with resolve, with the sweat of our backs, and with the blood of our patriots.

Expecting it to come to Iraq any other way is wishful thinking.  And right now, the Iraqis are learning for themselves that freedom is never a hopeless cause.