More On The Iraq Vote

Cooper's post today offers a fine summary of the good, the bad and the ugly on the Iraq vote. One point he makes, which we should remember, is that the ShrubCo plan for forming a new government in Iraq had no resemblence to what actually took place. The direct vote was a result of - dare we say it? - a popular movement instigated by Sistani. I would add that when you hear the predictable and irritating bleatings about how successful the ShrubCo foreign policy is, it should be our job to point out that those who say it are cynically taking advantage of the bravery shown by the Iraqi people in order to advance yet more partisan political garbage here at home. By doing so they shame themselves and denigrate the achievment of the Iraqis. There's some cautioning for us as well, with which I agree:

We need to find a way to escalate the politics and reduce the bloodshed and simplistic nostrums from triumphalists on the one side or lefitsh isolationists on the other will not cut the mustard. We owe a more sober response to the Iraqi people.

More politics and less bloodshed? Given the choice of either politics or bloodshed, I'll take politics.

Update:Hate to say it(especially twice in as many days), but BullMoose has gone and made some more sensible points along the same lines.