Juan Cole, writing today in his blog “Informed Comment.” Professor Cole, alas, can’t quite bring himself to come out and state the obvious. Which is that the insurgents suffered a major blow today--because Iraqis courageously came out in droves to vote and because there were far fewer insurgent attacks than anyone dared hope. And note the italicized portion quoted above. Is it just me, or does one almost espy a sense of regret that the security measures, you know, worked? [ed. note: Why do I still blogroll this guy? I respect his regional expertise--but I fear he’s too knee-deep in Ward Churchill disease. Perhaps I’ll have to remedy this during the next blog-roll cleanup.]
For more on Cole’s excesses, be sure to see this post over at Volokh by David Bernstein. And don’t miss Wretchard on Cole either. Both highly recommended reads.
UPDATE: I’m getting some mail along the lines that I’m unfair to Cole by suggesting he might derive pleasure from the deaths of innocents. That’s not what I’m saying above. Cole cares about the region and its inhabitants, quite passionately. What I’m saying is that his quasi-pathological distrust and hate of the Bushies has greatly reduced his credibility. Why? Because he too often appears to be rooting for this Administration’s policy objectives to fail (witness the almost monomaniacal obsession with each and every setback--day in, day out-- at his blog (never a good day, Juan, just one?). And also, people, because Bush is simply not the devil incarnate. Believe it or not, some of his policy moves can and do advance the cause of human liberty every now and again. Today was such a day. Cole would have done himself a favor by showing some magnanimity and judiciousness by acknowledging that. Instead, he’s further embarrassing himself by penning such sour drivel:
“All the boosterism has a kernel of truth to it...” How shabby, ungenerous and low. Meanwhile, I would look forward to an explication of Cole’s methodology regarding how each of the Pakistani election of 2002 and the Iranian one of 1997 were “much more democratic” than today’s in Iraq. Regardless, read all of Cole’s post to get a full flavor of the hoops he will jump through to deny Bush any credit at all for what took place today. It’s quite, er, breathtaking.
