Sunday's Best: The People of Iraq

A hat tip and a bow to the brave people of Iraq. We may not know where these elections may take them, but the remarkable turnout was an encouraging sign. Election photos and updates can be found here. My favorite pic is this one posted by a blogger in Baghdad. Walter Russell Mead notes the ties between tyranny and terrorism and declares that "each vote strikes at terror." A voter in the town of Baquba shares the sentiment but in more graphic terms. Jim Hoagland is hopeful about what the election means and uber-realist Fareed Zakaria says that having elections does not mean that you have a democracy. Ironically Zakaria's notion also held by the idealist Natan Sharansky.

Not everything out there is about the elections. Tom Wolfe (yes that Tom Wolfe) chimes in on W's inauguration speech and traces its lineage to the Monroe Doctrine. An interesting piece in the Washington Times spotlights the sham Egyptian presidential election scheduled for October. An LA Times op-ed expands on a topic that I brought up this week and am pessimistic about - the reunification of China and Taiwan. Thomas Friedman declares himself a geo-green. Reduce our reliance on oil and the producing countries will be forced to open up their economies and societies. The focus is on the Middle East, but this would also work for Venezuela. Despite his assertion to the contrary doesn't that make Friedman a neo-con? An op-ed in the NY Times urges the Jewish people and Israel to stop using the Holocaust card. David has grown up to be Goliath so they need new tactics to garner international support. A decent argument is made, but the state of Israel has to be the puniest Goliath I've ever seen. A bona fide foreign aid supporter thinks that once it comes to aid that less can be more. Finally I am reluctant to mention it since it is going to go nowhere, but Andres Oppenheimer reports on Jimmy Carter's plan to save the OAS and democracy in Latin America.