Sweet Victory

Glenn Reynolds:
Bush went out of his way to take responsibility for the war. He repeatedly talked about "my decision to invade Iraq," even though, of course, it was also Congress's decision. He made very clear that, ultimately, this was his war, and the decisions were his. Why did he do that? Because he thinks we're winning, and he wants credit. (Quote H.T. Firedoglake)

Ah, yes. We're winning. That's definitely the message what with the purple fingers and the multiple helpings of the word "victory" we got with every Bush speech. The trickier matter as always is figuring out what the definition of Victory is:
Iraq's elections were dominated by Islamic clerics, and the new Parliament probably will include a large proportion of Islamist legislators, many of whom have ties to the mullahs of Iran. In recent elections across across Iraq and other countries in the region, Islamist parties have capitalized on new political freedoms to gain a clout and legitimacy unprecedented in the modern Middle East. Their growing strength is the single most unpredictable element in the Bush administration's grand vision to replace despots with democracy.
Whether it's the Shiite Muslim-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas or Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Islamist parties have benefited from the administration's promotion of democracy in the Arab world. But the Islamists also have gained strength from widespread opposition to U.S. policy, which has convinced some Muslims that their religion is under attack.

Like the Kn@ppster said:
I have to pose the question: Why is "democracy" bad when it elects fundamentalist Shiite governments in Iran, and good when it elects fundamentalist Shiite governments in Iraq? More to the point, why is it worth more than 2,000 American lives to bring the same kind of elections to Iraq which some claim produce anti-freedom (and anti-America) results in Iran?


(P.S. -- I'm trying to make this blog more readable by changing the format of the quoted text from using the blockquote tabs to changing the color and making everything quoted in italics. Am I hurting or helping? Eventually there is a lot about the layout of the blog I want to change, but being a technology idiot, it will take some figuring out.)