It's time to make those doom-mongers eat their words

Still they won't admit they got Iraq wrong
Con Coughlin/The Telegraph (UK) Original Article

Last Sunday evening, as Iraq's historic election was drawing to a close, I was invited to the BBC's Television Centre at White City to discuss the day's events. Sitting in the green room, I came across Dr Salah al-Shaikhly, Iraq's ambassador to London and an old friend from his days in the exiled Iraqi opposition movement. Dr al-Shaikhly, who is a close ally of Ayad Allawi, Iraq's interim prime minister, could not wait for his appearance to acclaim the success of the first truly independent elections that had taken place since Iraq's creation by the British in the 1920s.