(via AndrewSullivan) Now this is a fantastic sign -

Several Arab columnists have recently published articles in the Arab press refuting the argument that the Iraqi government is illegitimate, in response to an argument voiced by representatives of several Arab countries at the November 2004 Sharm Al-Sheikh summit. The following are excerpts from three of these pieces:

Free Elections in the Arab World Occur Only in Occupied Iraq and Palestine

In an article titled 'Democratic Occupation?' columnist Salama Ni'mat, the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for the London Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat, wrote:

..."It is outrageous, and amazing, that the first free and general elections in the history of the Arab nation are to take place in January: in Iraq, under the auspices of American occupation, and in Palestine, under the auspices of the Israeli occupation.

"[It is just as] outrageous that the Arab League, which represents the will of the regimes of 20 [Arab] countries from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, wanted the Iraqi opposition to be invited to the Sharm Al-Sheikh conference, so as to ensure that all Iraq, with its entire political spectrum, would be in attendance to represent the Iraqi people. It matters not at all that other Arab oppositions have not been invited to any Arab League meeting or to its many summit conferences, throughout the history of the Arab peoples."

There's a lot more of it @ MEMRI.   I don't care how much you opposed the Iraq war OR whether you ultimately think the costs of the war exceeded it's benefits.   I only want you to acknowledge 2 things -

• that this sort of political dissent is an important milestone towards hopefully greater progress across the mid-East
• that Iraq is clearly the example being cited