Iraqi elections

Remember how President Bush was ridiculed for trying to bring democracy to Iraq? Well, the recent elections there suggest he may not have been so crazy after all. Charles Krauthammer describes here how secular parties have defeated Islamist ones; and how prime minister Maliki, who pursued close security relations with the United States, has emerged stronger than before. As Amir Taheri puts it, "All the parties that had 'Islamic' or 'Arab' in their names lost. By contrast, all those that had the words 'Iraq' or 'Iraqi' gained."

Two thoughts about this story, beyond the obvious (that these elections are worth celebrating):

-- Primary credit for the largely peaceful, clean elections goes to the Iraqis. However, the lack of media coverage suggests that they perceive the outcome as also due to Bush's policies - and that they don't want to say anything positive about Bush.

-- President Obama has talked about the need to show respect to the Muslim world. I would argue that we showed respect to the Iraqis by taking them seriously and that they responded in kind.