Hooray!

Congratulations and best wishes to the Iraqi people! I am happy that Iraqis turned out in force to participate in the election in spite of the violence that was unleashed to dissuade them.

Now, comes the real work. The new government will most likely come under attack both verbally and literally from a variety of sources. Legitimacy will be the first obstacle and will probably rear it's head in the form of a self-disenfranchised Sunni minority. Then there are the continuing attacks by insurgents, which might increase or decrease depending on the aformentioned legitimacy issue. How fast, if at all, will the new goverment demand the pull-out of American troops? Will the Sunnis be invited to help shape the new constitution, which the newly elected assembly is tasked to write? Oh so many questions...I truly hope for the best, but with this administration, I am not counting on it.