Cynical Nation

I'd always viewed the Bush doctrine as a long-term strategy. Even before the war in Iraq, I predicted it would take 5 to 10 years before it could bear any substantial fruit -- and I considered myself optimistic.

Today, however, the landscape over much of the Middle East is changing so rapidly that even the New York Times had to sit up and take notice.

...[T]his has so far been a year of heartening surprises - each one remarkable in itself, and taken together truly astonishing. The Bush administration is entitled to claim a healthy share of the credit for many of these advances.

Granted, this is pretty subdued stuff, but it is the Times we're talking about, after all, and the fact that they felt compelled to pen these words after years of uninterrupted slamming of Bush's Middle East policy is nothing less than striking. Will wonders never cease?