More Iraq Optimism

I'm convinced the war in Iraq is just and will succeed--and so is Jonah Goldberg:

Islamic fundamentalism . . . rejects democracy for much the same reason — to use Bill Buckley's phrase — that baloney rejects the grinder. But does anyone doubt the ultimate conclusion of such a conflict? The jihadists aren't really competing with democracy — they're opposing it the way barbarians have always opposed modernity and civilization. They can't cope with it otherwise.

The expansive, decent version of democracy will come to the Middle East and the rest of the world — eventually. If the Iraqi elections fail, even their failure will reinforce the desire for successful elections. Many complain that in Iraq the process is too bloody or too expensive, but these critics are determined to make the perfect the enemy of the good. At the end of the tunnel we, or our children, will look back on America's role as the catalyst for democracy, and we'll be proud that we were on the right side of history and its end.

Read it all.