That Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and his Dawa Party would not agree to contest the next election in combination with the other major Shiite parties—notably the late Abdel Aziz al-Hakim’s Islamic
Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) and Moqtada al Sadr’s dwindling band of supporters—is good news.

It means that Maliki will run as a nationalist, not a sectarian candidate, and it will further the trend seen in the last provincial elections of ethno-sectarian allegiances becoming less important to Iraqi voters. Assuming the trend continues, it will mark an important step in Iraq’s development as a more durable and mature democracy.

But of course we shouldn’t be sanguine: there are plenty of dangers still ahead for this troubled land, notably Arab-Kurd divisions, Iranian interference, and Sunni extremist terrorism. Still, notwithstanding horrific acts of terrorism, Iraq continues to make slow and halting progress—which suggests that President Bush’s vision of nurturing an Arab democracy was not such a crazy brainstorm after all.