Democracy Moves Forward in Iraq
—Hugh Hewitt

ABC News has published the results of a large survey of Iraqis, and the headline "Dramatic Advances Sweep Iraq, Boosting Support for Democracy," tells us everything we need to know. The departed Bush Administration's surge strategy has worked, and decisively so. All across Iraq and spanning all ethnic groups, optimism about the future and faith in democracy is growing.

With this surge of hope comes the expectation of rising standards of living and, crucially, continued repair of the civil society shattered by the long, cruel reign of Saddam Hussein.

These results are particularly crucial now that bad news seems to arrive every day from Afghanistan. Here too new American war-fighting policy is transforming the coalition's efforts, and there can be a victory in that theater every bit as decisive as the one in Iraq--if the new Administration is as committed to victory as the old.