Encouraging Signs

The future of Iraq is far from clear at this point, yet already there are positive signs coming out of the Arab world as a result of the invasion. As I have argued previously, the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with WMD - the reason given for the invasion - but with an attempt at a wholesale transformation of the Arab world. Some comments in the Arab media seem to show that this transformation is starting; at the least, questions that would not and were not asked, are now being asked. Bill Kristol quotes a number of these.

Some of the [Arab League] members . . .maintain that the Baghdad government is not legitimate. Why? They argue that it is not elected and was appointed by the American occupation. This widespread view has some basis. . . . However, the talk of the illegitimacy of the [Iraqi] government. . . . allows us to raise questions regarding most of the regimes in the region . . . some of which emerged as a result of coups or internal conspiracies, when no one asked the people what it thought.
Abdel Rahman al-Rashed
director-general of Al Arabia TV, writing in the London-based daily Al Sharq Al Awsat
November 24

This is why elections can not be postponed. Delaying them may once again push these voices into hiding, and then the invasion will not have achieved any real objectives.