And the big winner in the Iraqi elections is ... Iran!!

I'm pretty sure this is not what King George's cabal had in mind when they talked about democracy being on the march over there:

As the trends became available regarding the Iraqi elections of last Thursday, what has emerged is that contrary to all pre-poll projections, the Shi'ite religious coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), not only held together, but also can be expected to dominate the new 275-member National Assembly for the next four years.

More importantly, the "secular" candidates who were believed to enjoy links with the US security agencies would seem to have been routed. Former premier Iyad Allawi's prospects of leading the new government seem virtually nil. And Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Accord suffered a shattering defeat.

This must be one of those outcomes that Donald Rumsfeld would say was one of those "unknown unknowns."

NOT QUITE READY FOR COMBAT: Cathie points out that all of those vaunted battle-ready, Iraqi battalions that are getting ready to stand up so that American troops can stand down haven't quite graduated to the point where they're allowed to carry actual, you know, guns.

I'm thinking that the current political instability might have something to do with that. But, hey, democracy is on the march. Or maybe it's goose-stepping. These days, it's hard to tell the difference.