Bill McGurn: W's Iraq

In a column in today's New York Post, Amir Taheri notes a little noticed fact about today's Iraq that is at once a tribute to my former boss, President Bush, and a rebuke to the "stability first" crowd. As he points out, it turns out that Iraq is the only place safe enough to play host to this year's meeting of the Arab League:

Almost two years ago, the league's secretary-general, Amr Moussa, started looking for a safe place to hold its next summit. This was no easy task, as the "Arab world" was being sucked into an unprecedented political storm....

Believe it or not, by the start of 2011, the only Arab country that appeared safe and stable enough to host the summit was Iraq. Yes, the same Iraq of "quagmire" and "new Vietnam" repute.

But that is not the end of the saga. Now the Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia, seem bent on derailing the Baghdad summit scheduled for May 10-11.

The stated reason is Iraq's support for the Arab uprising, especially in Bahrain. But the real reason fear that Iraq may claim leadership in a new effort to transform the "Arab World" from a club of despots to an alliance of people-based states.

Iraq, of course, isn't out of the woods; its achievements are challenged daily. But it is the only Arab country where the overwhelming majority accept that change of government should be sought through elections rather than coup d'etat, civil war, revolution or mass murder.

Hmmn. It wasn't that long ago that expert opinion -- including the man who is now President -- had Iraq in the thick of a civil war that would never be resolved, that the surge was a failure, and that introducing democracy to Arabs was destabilizing.