Let freedom ring

Today is election day in Iraq!

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of the Middle East.

Let freedom ring from the Cradle of Civilization!

Let freedom ring from the splendid metropolis of Baghdad.

Let freedom ring from the mountains of the north, across the deserts of central Iraq, to the Persian Gulf in the south.

Let freedom ring up and down the banks of mighty the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every province and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, Sunni and Shiite, Arabs and Kurds, Muslims, Christians, and Jews, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

IRAQ