For the most part, Americans do not grasp the enormous importance of the Iraqi elections. There have been many elections in the Middle East, but in the words of the eminent Prof. Bernard Lewis:

All too often, [Middle Eastern] elections are less a way of choosing a government than a ritual designed to ratify and symbolize a choice that has already been made by other means--something like a presidential inauguration in the United States or a coronation in Britain.

The recent bloody fraud in Egypt is a good example of the above. However, the mere fact that no one knows the outcome of the Iraqi elections and that it is very likely that the current leadership will lose and leave power peacefully indicates that something huge has happened. We should not take this achievement for granted.