Elections Are Not Democracy: "The United States has essentially stopped trying to build a democratic order in Iraq, and is simply trying to gain stability and legitimacy"

Although I disagreed with his support of the war, this column by Fareed Zakaria accurately sums up the situation in Iraq as it stands today. The goal for the United States now is to stabilize the area as much as possible so we can have a symbolic pullout of a few thousand troops.

For those Americans who continue to believe we're making plans to pull out of Iraq now that there have been elections, keep in mind we are still constructing 14 permanent American military bases in Iraq. It's not a coincidence that at the same time, the US is scaling back its military presence in Saudi Arabia setting the stage for Iraq to become the new home for military operations in the Middle East.