Sunday's Best?

There's some new stuff out there this Sunday, but the election in Iraq and its repercussions is still getting most of the op-ed ink. The Washington Post has two stories on how the election in Iraq was received by the Arab media and the "Arab street". Amr Hamzawy does an excellent job in distinguishing between the purported voices of the "Arab street", pan-Arab and Islamist intellectuals, and the real street which can be "pragmatic, confident and for the most part tolerant." The elections were also celebrated by Thomas Friedman in a great column in which he recounts voters walking around the corpse of a suicide bomber and spitting on his remains as they lined up to vote. He also declares that this war is not about "Mr. Bush anymore. It's about the aspirations of the Iraqi majority..." An Arab News columnist overcomes his original skepticism to celebrate with an outing to Mickey D's.

Down Europe Way things are looking rosier. That or everyone is just playing nice, I suppose that it is too early to tell. The Washington Post notes that bitterness is ebbing in Europe although there is little mention of the French and a brief discussion of Turkish concern over the Kurds in Iraq getting a taste of sovereignty. A piece in the Financial Times also noted that the US and Europe are beginning to see eye to eye on a number of critical issues in the Mid East. The Daily Telegraph (London) has a write-up on Condi explaining her blend of realpolitik and idealism. It also takes time to (slightly) bash Powell (!) and reveal Ms. Rice to be "clever, charming, articulate, fluent in French and when occasion demands, flirtatious." Sounds to me that she at least charmed a writer for the Telegraph. The final good news is the administration's efforts to boost foreign aid and even trade.

Now to the dark side. The American Empire is broke, but I guess we all knew that. We may have an embargo on Iran but that didn't stop Halliburton from doing business with the charter member of the Axis of Evil. Finally Freedom House released a report that found that hate literature can be found in mosques and Muslim libraries...in America. The literature is published by our friends the Saudi's or clerics from there. Among its recommendations: if you have a non-Muslim maid or cook "hate her for Allah's sake", "hate Christian or Jews", and calls for a "wall of resentment" against non-believers.