It is curious that jihadwatch, which for years has condemned the Iraqi project as ushering in a democratically elected sharia state, has ignored the recent Iraqi election, which has demonstrated, even to my surprise, that Iraqi Arabs are not as fundamentalist as folks on this website have claimed: Maliki's party, which is largely secular nationalist, has overwhelmingly beaten the religious/sharia based parties such as the Sadrists, the latter of whome recieved less then 20% of the vote, even in Basra.

This suggests that despite the absence of WMD, perhaps, just perhaps, the removal of Saddam was worth it and that an Arab democracy, not a Sharia state, is emerging in Iraq, just as Bush had planned. Perhaps those on this site, in particular Hugh, may as a consequence demonstrate a little intellectual humility and recognize that many of their explanations and predictions about Iraq--which even I believed when Iraq was in civil war and when Iraqi elections brought Sharia parties to power--will turn out to be wrong