Through two months of bold and sometimes bitter negotiations, pluralism wins through and Iraq has a speaker for parliament.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi politicians chose a Sunni Arab tobe the speaker of parliament on Sunday, ending a politicalimpasse and taking a decisive step toward forming a governmentnine weeks after historic elections.

In a ballot, the members of the 275-seat National Assemblyvoted overwhelmingly to elect Hajem al-Hassani, the industryminister, as speaker. Hassani, a religious Sunni, is an ally ofinterim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

“We passed the first hurdle,” Hassani told reporters. “TheIraqi people have proven that they can overcome the politicalcrisis that has plagued the country for the last two months.”

But he also warned against complacency: “If we neglect ourresponsibilities and fail, we will hurt ourselves and thepeople will replace us with others.”

Shi’ite politician Hussain Shahristani and Kurdish lawmakerArif Tayfor were named deputy speakers. The Shi’ites and Kurds,who came first and second in the elections, agreed that amember of the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority should bespeaker.

Mohammed weighs in with additional details from Iraq, with regards to the government’s direction on fighting corruption, crime, and providing needed services like electricity, healthcare, and education. He also has his own thoughts on the matter.

Iraq is showing the region a new experiment here that is hopefully going to be the corner stone for a true major reform in the Middle East.
This is going to be a tough road and we might not reach our goals with the desired speed and easiness but the important thing here is that this new experience in Iraq will not be confined to this country alone, it will help and inspire the oppressed nations that are still suffering from regimes similar to Saddam’s to build their own examples and the sacrifices that are going to be given in Iraq will make the sought for freedom easier and faster for other freedom seekers.
Now let Iraq be a candle that shows the road for those who were hesitant go through the dangers of that road.

The articles I have read over the past month with regards to the parliament’s taking so long to form the government have all cried “Failure!” My gut instinct is to certainly blame it on lazy and biased journalism, but it reaches quite a bit beyond that. Since it is quite apparent that most mainstream journalists are leftists, — I refuse to call them liberals since they do not embody true liberalism in any sense of the word — then their articles will be written through the filter of leftism. In this they also have a painful gut reaction: religious, ethnic, and political disagreements mean that democracy is failing in Iraq.

It is actually contrary, explaining why leftist and third-worldist views have steadily declined for the past few decades with regards to reality. In a real democratic society, the various parties are supposed to disagree and subsequently compromise. This is exactly what is happening in Iraq.

Yes, the debates are heated and yes, the various parties often disagree. But they do what many times bipartisanship in our own country prevents: compromise for the greater good of the country. That’s not failure, that’s called success.