In the wake of Iraq’s recent provincial elections, it is instructive to consider how many once-settled judgments now have to be significantly, and in some cases fundamentally, revised.

Perhaps most important is the one declaring that the effort to spread liberty to the Arab Middle East was a fool’s errand, that the cultural soil of Iraq was too hard and forbidding for democracy to take root, and that elections would only strengthen religious radicals and deepen sectarian differences. In fact, freedom is taking root in Iraq. We are seeing the enfranchising of Sunni Arabs. And though the journey hasn’t been easy, Iraq is today a legitimate, representative, and responsible democracy.

In addition, the fears that democracy would lead to a radical, illiberal theocratic rule have not been realized. Secular and moderately religious parties (like Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawa Party) did well; sectarian parties (like the Iranian-backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq) did not. Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical anti-American cleric once thought to be an increasingly influential figure in Iraq’s future, has seen his power and influence diminish. And the secular Iraqi National List, led by former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, made gains.

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