Hey, look at that!

This, about the election in Iraq last week, strikes me as absurdly good news:

The turnout, 51%, was less than some predicted but importantly it included many Sunnis who had boycotted the last elections in 2005. Turnout in some of the Sunni areas was as high as 60%. The hope is that these Sunnis have turned from the methods of al-Qaida, which dominated the early post-Saddam years, to the political process.

The peaceful polling was remarkable and so were the results. All the Islamic parties lost ground, especially that associated with the so-called “Shia firebrand”, Moqtada al-Sadr, whose share of the vote went down from 11% to 3%. The principal Sunni Islamic party, the Islamic Party of Iraq, was wiped out.

Iraq is obviously not yet a stable, liberal democracy that could function without U.S. help, but this is all very encouraging.

(h/t Goldberg)