Iraq's Constitutional Process Being Processed

The outcome of the constitutional balloting represents yet another blow to those effectively rooting for the defeat of American and allied policies in the Mideast — and their allies in the media.

These are the folks who've been predicting catastrophe for the United States almost from the moment a coherent response to 9/11 began to take shape.

Afghanistan was going to be a "quagmire" of the sort that defeated the Soviet Union. And when that didn't happen, the resultant elections were sure to be a fiasco — except, of course, they weren't

Fast forward to last January's Iraqi elections — another guaranteed repudiation of America's vision for the region that never happened.

Guess the joke's on the media, except that nobody's laughing.

None of this guarantees that the proposed constitution will eventually be the template for a democratic Iraq. Nor, in fact, that a democratic Iraq is possible under any circumstances.

What is clear, however, is that the greater Mideast has fundamentally changed since 9/11. There is a long, long way to go before the region no longer is susceptible to the practice — and export — of terrorism for political purposes.

But Iraq, clearly, no longer represents an objective threat to its neighbors, and that can be only a long-term positive for the region. The Iranian mullahs, in particular, have lost a critical bogeyman in Saddam Hussein — and, over time, are going to find it increasingly difficult to hold in thrall their young, vibrant and Western-oriented population.

Similarly, the despots who control Syria and Saudi Arabia are threatened by Iraq's evolving democracy — which is why there is so much Syrian and Saudi aid to the Iraqi terrorists.

The folks at the New York Times, AP, Reuters, and other opinion outlets are playing catch up because facts have outstripped their ability to comprehend the meaning of the successful elections. Their opinions have been tied to a negative outcome for so long that successful elections have to be ignored or otherwise minimized by bad news or bad spin.

UPDATE:
Walid Phares weighs in.

Regardless of the final results, the political process in the post-Baath Iraq is emerging as a victor against the stubborn terror attacks by al Qaida and the Saddam regime remnants. From that angle alone, the bloc of 15.4 million registered voters – including those who voted "no," or weren't able to participate because of fear – have defeated one more time the forces of Jihadism and Baathism.

On January 30, the very first free election in Iraq dealt the first blow to the Terrorists. The October 15 referendum produced the second defeat to the Jihadists.

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