After a busy weekend I am madly trying to get caught up on all my reading. Days are full with school and nights are filled with homework. You may have noticed the post time of "fairly reasonable." That was when I started writing the post, not when I finished it.
I haven't had time to put together something all my own on the recent Iraqi constitutional referendum, but here is an excerpt from today's Best of the Web (James Taranto). This weekends referendum lends evidential credence to my views on the state of Iraq and potential future. I think (though I may be wrong) that regardless of political ilk, we should all be optimistic supporters of the development of democracy in Iraq. You may not agree with reasons for going to war, you might think much of post-war policy has been poor, but its hard to argue with the success of this last weekend and the response of the Iraqi people.
Alright, enough bloviation from me, here's James Taranto...
The Bush Legacy
Forget about Hurricane Katrina, the Valerie Plame kerfuffle, the federal deficit, even Harriet Miers. Forget about the things you've already forgotten about--Enron, Halliburton, the Texas Air National Guard, that kook who camped out in Crawford all those months ago. The reality is that President Bush's legacy will be judged on two things: whether America is successful in Iraq, and, if so, whether success in Iraq helps promote democracy and discourage terrorism elsewhere in the Arab and Muslim worlds.
If the former happens, history will recognize Bush as a near-great president; if the latter, as a great one. That's why Bush's foes in politics and in the media, here in America and overseas, have, with unseemly eagerness and impatience, embraced the idea that America is destined to fail in Iraq. And it is why they have to be feeling pretty blue after Saturday's successful constitutional referendum in Iraq.
"Iraqis streamed to the polls on an unusually peaceful Saturday, and preliminary results indicate that the country's new charter is likely to be approved, clearing the way for the formation of a permanent government," the Christian Science Monitor reports:
"Better security in many Sunni towns and a general feeling among Sunnis that last January's parliamentary election boycott hurt their cause more than it helped made many of them want to make their voices heard this time."
The Washington Post notes that "turnout reached 93 percent in the heavily Sunni western city of Fallujah after clerics and others went door-to-door telling residents it was safe to venture out of their homes, election officials said." Blogress Bridget Johnson notes that terror attacks were way down compared with the last balloting: "During the Iraq elections last January there were 347 terrorist attacks on voters and polling places. [Saturday] there were 13":
The liberals are upset today. They discovered once again the Iraqi people agree with Bush: That their freedom is worth fighting and dying for. And they proved it by risking death to make a statement. They proved it by creating a remarkable Constitution in ten months--when it took us years.
The Iraqi people are our allies in the War on Terror. And judging by their grit, restraint in the face of violence for a bigger cause, and bravery, we are lucky to have them.
Sorry, liberals, no Civil War here. Move on. Nothing to see. Maybe elsewhere you can propagandize on behalf of mass murderers to hurt the Bush administration, but not in Iraq. Not in Iraq.
How will history remember those who argued that America would be better off if only we had a leader with (swallow coffee before reading on) the integrity of John Kerry or the maturity of Joe Biden? Well, we suppose more favorably than it will remember those who will insisted Iraq was better off under Saddam Hussein."
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