But once we invaded - taking the whole country faster than Janet Reno took a compound in Waco - we had set forces in play that could not be called back. The Afghanis had managed to come up with a stable form of government with no real problems, and they managed to set elections and elect leaders, all without American interference. (Something you never hear from the feminists is that the first person to vote in those Afghani elections was a woman, and this in a country where women weren’t even allowed to learn to read until we kicked the Taliban out! No, they’re too busy hating Bush.)

But once we took Saddam out, and installed a CPA to oversee repairs and restoration, the NION crowd (ably aided by the MSM and liberal bloggers) were forced to start trying to scare us away with scenes of horror as the terrorists “insurgents” started bombing the locals, and videotaping and broadcasting ritual beheadings of captured innocents, and the media - ever eager to punish Bush for not listening to them - aired the most sympathetic views they could, while the liberal bloggers called the victims of these atrocities “mercenaries”, and concluded “Fuck ‘em.”

Accusations of human rights abuses were leveled against anyone who so much as looked harshly at a terrorist innocent Iraqi - never mind pointing at them while they were naked. (According to many of you NION units, being forced to wear panties on their heads is somehow worse than having that head sawed off with a steak knife. I wonder how many of you would have screamed if we had just sawed a few heads off ourselves. We didn’t. You bitched anyway.)

Cries of “quagmire” and oft-repeated references to the last time you won a major victory ("Viet-" something or other) showed your hope that we would go in and run away again, like the bully you make America out to be. That Q-word was literally used within 48 hours of the first boots on the ground in Iraq.

In the two years since the statue of Saddam was toppled, all manner of accusation, allegation and assertion were levelled against Bush, his Cabinet officials, and anyone who dared to support Coalition action (including calling the largest coalition in all of History “unilateral American Imperialism"). Accusations of torture, cold-blooded murder, and more, all in the attempt to shift the tide of public opinion to where it was in the early 70s, when the Government wasn’t trusted, the military was demoralized, body bags got primetime airplay, and slimebags who betrayed their country ended up running for office. (Even winning in a few cases.)

What wasn’t noticed is the slow grind of events. People see their lights come on for the first time in months, food is plentiful, kids are going to school, and the citizens see that the soldiers are real people with an eagerness to help defend them against the terrorists “insurgents” instead of being baby-eating robots with movie-style weapons.

All that was Not In Your Name.

The election held earlier this year was also Not In Your Name. Screams of rage and cries of “illegitimate” resounded as Iraqis waved their purple fingers in the air, dancing and cheering in the streets, and, in one impressive incident, an Iraqi who had been wounded in an attempted terrorist strike “insurgent attack” refused medical treatment until he had gotten a chance to vote.

Your gleeful cheers welcomed the standard confusion attendant upon starting a new form of government from scratch, with a few hoping that the Iraqis would turn to a theocracy, just so that they can point their fingers and say, “We told you so!”.

Well, folks, yesterday the Iraqi Interim government appointed a Kurdish man, Jalal Talabani, as their President. He was the first ethnic Arab to be appointed to such a powerful position in the whole Arab world.

Today, they have appointed the Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari (a Shiite).  They have a freely-elected government in place in two years from a standing start. Two years!! It took the US almost three times that long, but that wasn’t good enough for you, was it?

Well, suck it up, boyo, because a free Iraq is here - a proven reality. The next step is an Iraqi Constitution. And that will be done Not In Your Name, either. You will have had absolutely nothing to do with any of it. Your preferences were made perfectly clear. So stew in your impotence, and remember that when the invitations to the party show up, none of them will be In Your Name.

UPDATE: It has been pointed out (by Pat Meebles over in this Moorewatch trackback) that I neglected to include that a Sunni was named as the new Vice President, which is yet another cold splash of reality for those who were howling about how the Sunnis were going to be “oppressed” in the new government. Mea culpa and thanks for the correction, Pat!