2010 National Elections in Iraqi

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704869304575109613619617840.html

Again, as in the national election of 2005, more Iraqis turned out to vote than Americans ever do - and they did so again under threats of death from various terrorist and insurgent groups. One thing that struck me is that Fallujah, Fallujah had a 61% turnout! If you don't understand the significance of that you don't understand Iraq.

Whatever the myriad problems and bunglings that America and its leaders (Bush) and others introduced into Iraq, there is only one overwhelming fact:

Iraq was one of the most despotic places on earth before 2003, yet now free and fair national elections have been held twice (and provincial elections have been held a few times).

This is a huge win for the Iraqi people and for all of humanity. Yes it is fragile - but so are virtually all new democracies, from the East Europeans to Latin America, they're all fragile at first (which is why so many fail). And yes this one could easily fail. But this one is special - it is the first real democracy in the Arab world. Larry Diamond, in his book The Spirit of Democracy noted in 2008 that the only significant cultural block of the world without a single representative democracy are the Arabs.

This is significant because of Iraq's importance to the region - it's like France for Europe (Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia would be Germany and UK). This is not a tiny, non-influential nation.

No one man is more responsible for this change than George W. Bush.