Congratulations to Iran

...for winning the Iraqi elections. It was a tough campaign, but I think it was the "Abu Ghraib Veterans for Truth" ads that really did in the US-backed Allawi slate.

I'm sure we'll hear that this is a great day for democracy, and that the Iraqis decided to choose their own leaders, and anyone thinking this election was stage-managed by the US can just look to the results. Funny, because that's not what Don Rumsfeld was saying last week:

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld also said Sunday he doubts Iraq will model its government after Iran's. Such a move would be "a terrible mistake," Rumsfeld said, while still acknowledging that Iraqis will establish their government on their terms.

Rumsfeld said other countries with predominantly Muslim populations include their faith without having it dominate. He said it is unlikely that Iraq will end up with a government like Iran's, "a handful of mullahs controlling much of the country."

"I think it would just be an enormous mistake for that country to think that it could succeed with all of its opportunity - with its oil, its water, its intelligent population - to deny half of their population, women, to participate fully, I think just would be a terrible mistake," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Well, 70% of the votes are for the 2 slates closest to Tehran. And many people have noted the revival of shrouds and burqas in Iraq, when prior to the invasion Western-style dress was the norm.

I guess it'll take a number of years before we know whether or not we've just created a Shiite superstate in the Middle East, and put the two most fearsome geopolitical powers in the region in direct cooperation with one another. But, um, guys, that's what it looks like.

I'd like anyone to tell me anything the neocons got right about this war...