Cinderella Story

"Everyone loves a Cinderella story. At the Olympics, we're all thrilled when a little country does well. At football matches, we rally behind the one expected to do poorly. We love an underdog -- unless it's Iraq.

It strikes me as strange. When the plan was for democracy in Iraq, nobody thought it could work. The Iraqi people lacked the sophistication to pull it off, the experts argued. When Iraqis said neighbouring countries don't want Iraq to succeed, we were accused of exaggeration. Now even the liberal NPR is reporting, "Iraq's neighbors are fearful that postelection wrangling could destabilize the country, while some are also disquieted by the display of democracy in their backyard."

And remember when the idea was for Iraq to be a model of the Middle East? Remember how that thought was laughed off the pages? NPR quotes an Egyptian as saying "Iraq is now giving a model." Yes, he used the word "model."

Why does Iraq threaten its neighbours? The story says, "Cairo analyst Mustafa el-Labbad says Arab citizens around the region couldn't help but notice that Iraqi voters displayed a power that they don't have -- the power to surprise.""
IraqPundit