DC Shrugs Off 'Miracle' in Iraq

Obama must support healthy Iraq, even if he opposed war
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 13, 2009 8:41 AM CST
DC Shrugs Off 'Miracle' in Iraq
An Iraqi election official sorts ballots from the country's provincial elections in the Shiite city of Najaf, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009.   (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)

The US barely noticed the recent "small miracle" in the Middle East, writes Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post: Iraq's peaceful elections. The nation "moved away from religious sectarianism toward more secular nationalism”—good news for the US, bad for Iran. Even though our policies made it possible, Washington took little heed: “After all, it fundamentally contradicts the general establishment/media narrative of Iraq as ‘fiasco.’”

The elections are proof positive of major advancements, but trouble could still lie ahead—if the US withdraws too early. “Obama might argue that American sacrifices in Iraq were not worth what we achieved,” but that no longer matters. "It is his duty as leader of the nation that gave birth to this fledgling democracy to ensure that he does nothing to undermine it.”
(More Iraq stories.)

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