Even the U.N. had to admit that things went pretty smoothly.
"The secretary general pays tribute to the courage of the Iraqi people and congratulates the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, as well as the thousands of Iraqi election workers and monitors, on having organised and carried out the referendum in such challenging circumstances," a U.N. spokesman said in a statement.
All of this is true and well deserved praise. Conspicuously absent is any mention of the U.S. military's impact upon the successful election process in Iraq. But that's fine. Our troops know what their contribution has been and don't need verbal bouquets from the U.N., of all places.
Naturally, I wonder just how often the U.S. would have been mentioned in that statement had the voting gone badly. The mind boggles at how quickly a poor outcome would have altered the U.N.'s perception of the event.
But it's a moot point. Thanks to both the courageous Iraqi people and our dedicated U.S. troops, all's well that ends well for yesterday's crucial election. Terrorists, beware the Ides of October. Your number has come up, and it's not a winner.
