You heard it from Spain's ruling party: freeing Iraq was bad politics. The only problem with this assessment is that it doesn't describe what Saddam Hussein's deposition has achieved in cultural and political waves throughout the region. Back in September of last year, Amir Taheri wrote of striking events - some totally unprecedented - where minorities in Near East dictatorships were demanding pluralism and democracy, or in the very least, electoral change. We know what has been going on in Iran. Syria, an unlikely place for popular reformist movements if one bases his judgment on conventional wisdom, has been emitting rumors of unrest and revolt. And, today, violent crackdowns. Repeat: people are fighting and dying for freedom, and their struggles began when Iraq's Ba'athists fell. Where is the left? Separate from reality, silent, or else calling the whole idea of Muslims governing themselves impolitic. Says Oubai on the Free Arab Forum:

When Iraq's new democratic constitution was signed, the death warrant for tyranny in the region was signed. The Islamist terrorists' failure to bring down the first free Arab country spells disaster for the world's last remaining Ba'ath stronghold - Syria. This is a force of history, it cannot be stopped, the repression has reached a saturation point and the people are now armed with that deadly weapon of hope; all thanks to the United States of America. So, to all you leftists demonstrating in Madrid against Iraqi Freedom, to all you who marched and chanted and yelled in response to the lifting of the jackboot of Ba'athism from the necks of the Iraqi people: may you drown in the shame knowing that you have stood on the wrong side of history.

Indeed. They're clinging tightly to the debris of a sinking ship, one that's well on its way to Davy Jones' Locker.