Iraq�s most recent elections were a sight for sore eyes. Independent observers agree they were free, fair, and valid. Iraqis voted less for sectarian parties and more for individual candidates. Extremists did not fare well. Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds all participated in large numbers. Iraq is today�and at least for now�more free and democratic than almost any of its Mideast neighbors. Those who think Arabs incapable of decent governance may yet be proven wrong. Those convinced that pluralism is impossible to sustain in a Muslim majority country also may turn out to have been mistaken.

All that is encouraging for people like me who believe freedom must either advance or retreat, and that Americans have a vital interest in which way the global tide turns. But even more important is the fact that Iraq�s third national elections since 2005 were an unmitigated disaster for both al-Qaeda and Iran�s proxies in Iraq. Their forces have been decimated�the U.S. military under the leadership of Generals David Petraeus and Ray Odierno saw to that. They were not able to either influence or intimidate large numbers of voters. Nor did they manage to stage terrorist attacks to disrupt the voting. (Four years ago, by contrast, there were nearly 300 such terrorist attacks.)

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