Lemon: The Good that GW Bush Has Wrought

From Golden Lemon Award Winner Snakeoil Baron.

• A nation that was run by a totalitarian regime, controlled by an ethnic group that was a minority in the nation (no offense to Iraqi Sunnis but no minority can rule a majority without fear and force) is now run by a multi ethnic parliament that was elected by vast participation of popular vote.
• A government is in place in Iraq which is fighting corruption (not perfectly but progressively) and struggling to secure itself against forces which threaten it and the stability of the region rather than one which struggled to promote these forces.
• Iraq's freedom of the press and of expression has lead to a boom in the independent media and personal communications in a nation where cell phones and Internet access was controlled (Saddam once said that the Internet was the end of civilization)
• While corruption is widespread in Iraq it is declining where as up until the invasion it was rising rapidly.
• Iraq's economy is improving continuously in contrast to the 30 years before the invasion.
• The education, health, justice and banking systems and civil utilities are improving instead of declining. Children have been vaccinated, farmers are getting access to training and technologies they did not have before and access to veterinary services.
• Drained marshes are being restored.
• The more sectarian politicians who were elected in the first round of elections are no longer as popular and the populations in Sunni regions are turning against al Qaida.
• All told, Iraq is one of the nations that poses the least threat to the region and to America which is a far different case than before. Iraq holds far more potential for creating diversified (not exclusively oil based) prosperity and security than Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Pakistan or even Egypt not that she is devolving into a banana republic. It is not that there is no hope for these other nations but there must be a lot of change and hard work within them and a change of attitude toward them to get them on the most direct path to peace and prosperity.