Time and time again I have explained, like others, that a democratic Iraq is the best weapon the free world can wield against the Near East's authoritarian culture. Make no mistake: the governments of Iran and Syria have, respectively, supported the southern and central terrorist insurgencies because they're terrified of what a free society will do to theirs. Just fifteen months after the Ba'athists fell, we're beginning to see proof positive:

The rise of a secular, democratic Iraq could pose a threat to Iran's Shi'ite clerical establishment, which fears it would serve as a powerful model for moderate Iranians who seek change, clerics said. Many senior clerics are particularly concerned about any shift in the center of gravity within Shi'ite Islam away from Iran's holy city of Qom, from which clerics wield immense political authority, toward Najaf in neighboring Iraq.

The emergence of Najaf coincides with the rise to political prominence of Iraqi clerics, such as Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who question the legitimacy of absolute rule by the clergy. "Now Najaf, as a more moderate center, will regain the place it held for most of the past 1,500 years," said Hadi Qabel, a reformist midranking cleric from Qom. "It will rejuvenate the role of clerics throughout the Shi'ite world. ... Iraqi moderate clerics like Ayatollah Ali Sistani do not consider ruling the country as their legitimate right," he said.

It's no coincidence that Najaf served as headquarters for Iranian-backed thug Muqtada al-Sadr, sitting right at the heart of his now-dead insurrection. Iran and the rest of Iraq's despot neighbors fear the freed country's affect on their oppressed populations, a distant call to freedom and life as civilized men that will only grow louder.