A RESULT-RICH ENVIRONMENT:

So far so good for Iraq's Maliki (Sami Moubayed, 7/01/06, Asia Times)

British prime minister Winston Churchill once said: "I pass with relief from the tossing sea of Cause and Theory to the firm ground of Result and Fact." Today in Iraq, we stand - for the first time since the Iraq war began in 2003 - on the firm ground of "result and fact".

First, we had the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (announced on June 8), followed 40 minutes later by completion of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's cabinet and the appointment of a Sunni as minister of defense. Hopes that the Sunnis, now in government, would shoulder responsibility for security and end the three-year-old insurgency were once again heightened.

Next, we had the national-reconciliation plan of Maliki, who said a truce would be reached with armed groups in the Sunni insurgency followed by a series of amnesties.

Personally, I'm inclined to count the toppling of the Ba'athist regime and the creation of the democratic system that brought Maliki to power as facts and results, how 'bout you?

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 2, 2006 4:39 PM