The editors of National Review explain why the selection of a compromise prime minister in Iraq “is a major victory for that country’s fledgling political class, and for the Bush administration.” They also note that
Purveyors of doom on Iraq now have some explaining to do: If the country is in the midst of a full-scale civil war fatal to our project there, how is it that elected representatives of the major factions were able to sit down and hammer out an agreement on the top positions in a national unity government? Iraq pessimists act like they have a special immunity from ever having to recalibrate their view of the conflict, as they instead move on to the latest iteration of their metaphysical despair.
Just so. The Iraqis continue to disappoint the American left by doing things like voting en masse and compromising on difficult issues. The MSM, even with its Baghdad bureaus, is rarely able to predict these successes. And after they occur, the MSM never bothers to ask what other positive things must be true about Iraq in order for the successes to have happened.
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