So we meet again, Dr. Hegel

Iraqi elections have gone better than expected, and no one is more glad than I am. First of all, there is my general girlie-man liberal aversion to widespread death and destruction (of which there was some, but drastically less than the worst-case scenario). Second, I've written about the validity of democracy-spreading and the universal quality of democracy here, here, and in my flawed, but, most importantly, completed honors thesis.

However, the downside of yesterday's success is that it will serve as a springboard for the administration to suggest that everything before this point has been rendered moot: minor and forgivable bumps on the road within a master unfolding of Iraqi democracy. This is the pinnacle of the Bush administration's aversion to accountability. No matter how high turnout was and how low violence was, it does not absolve doctored WMD claims, outright lies concerning the relationship of Saddam Hussein and al Qaida, disastrous post-war planning, or torture.

And to think Hegelianism had finally died with the Soviets, who argued that victory over the Nazis and the ultimate goals of communist utopia justified totalitarian excess. Instead, Hegel's "slaughterbench of history" is alive and well.