Iraqi Elections, maybe there is something to this freedom thing

from The National Post
by Jonathan Kay
On Saturday, Iraq conducted what may stand as the freest, fairest and most genuinely representative democratic elections the Arab world has ever witnessed. Yet even as the votes are being counted, the man responsible for this remarkable political revolution — who believed that Saddam Hussein's hellish dictatorship could be turned into a model Arab democracy, and mobilized the might of the most powerful nation on earth to do something about it — has already become something of a forgotten man.

George W. Bush made many mistakes during his presidency. But with Saturday's peaceful, vigorously contested election in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces, his overarching ambition of a robust democracy taking root in the heart of the Middle East seems to have become a reality. Notwithstanding the ongoing fawn-fest over Barack Obama, is it too much to ask that Mr. Obama's predecessor be given his due for accomplishing a task that, just a decade ago, during the dark days of Saddam's sadistic rule, would have seemed other-worldly?

Iraqi Freedom is Bush's True Legacy

from The Guardian
by William Shawcross
A new generation of Iraqi politicians is coming forward. Many of them are young and secular. They have lived always in Iraq, not in exile; they are Iraqis with local roots first and foremost - they are not pan-Arabs or pan-Islamists. Nor do they have connections to the US.
There will be further setbacks. But who knows, Iraq may yet even become a model for democratic change in other Arab countries. If so, who deserves some credit? The much maligned President Bush. And Tony Blair.

This from the UK!