Good News... Not that Anyone's Talking About It

Let's start in Australia, where Prime Minister John Howard won re-election despite the blatant efforts of John Kerry and several others...

Most opinion polls had forecast a tight race between Howard's Liberal-National coalition and a resurgent Labor Party under its brash new leader, Mark Latham, 43.

But computer predictions of Saturday's election result showed the government won a fourth consecutive term in office with an even bigger majority in the 150-member House of Representatives -- from 82 seats to as many as 87.

Labor was predicted to lose four seats to 60, with the three remaining held by independents.

The government also looked set to gain ground in the 76-member Senate, where Labor and its allies held a majority and have blocked key Howard legislative initiatives, like the full privatisation of telecommunications giant Telstra.

Media analysts suggested the coalition might fall just one seat short of the 39 seats needed to control the Senate, making legislative deals with independents easier.

Howard, 65 and facing forced retirement in the event of defeat Saturday, was ebullient in victory.

"This nation stands on the threshold of a new era of great achievement," he told a cheering crowd in a Sydney hotel.

"This is a truly historic achievement for our two parties," he said, noting his coalition was the first in some 40 years to have expanded its parliamentary majority in two successive elections.

Latham, who only took over the Labor Party 10 months ago and won widespread praise for setting the policy agenda during most of the six-week election campaign, vowed to fight on and make another bid for power in 2007.

"I have had a lot of people say that we have made the opposition strong and when there is a strong opposition, Australian democracy is so much stronger," he said.

"We'll continue to do that in the coming parliamentary term, we'll make sure the government is held to account," he said.

Latham, a fiery activist from a working class background in Sydney, had vowed to pull Australian troops from Iraq if he won.

His defeat by Howard will be good news for US President George W Bush, who also faces a tough fight for re-election next month against Senator John Kerry, like Latham a strident critic of the US Iraq policy.

The opening paragraph of the AFP dispatch, which I skipped, tried desperately to attribute the victory to Austalia's strong economy, rather than serving as support for Howard's policy of allying his nation with the U.S. in Iraq. John O'Sullivan provided a nice piece in the New York Post...

Prime Minister John Howard, a strong ally of America in general, was committed to supporting the United States in the Afghan and Iraq wars. Labor's leader, Mark Latham, had committed his party to bring home most Aussie troops in Iraq by Christmas.

If Labor had won, the world would have seen the result as a dramatic erosion of international support for George Bush's Iraq intervention — much more important than the Spanish elections (which threw out a Bush ally in favor of a left-wing government that immediately withdrew Spanish troops).

Australia has been a faithful U.S. ally in every American war since 1917 without needing (in John Kerry's words) to be either "coerced or bribed." At risk was a splintering of the English-speaking alliance (America, Australia and Great Britain) that has been the moral and military core of the war on terrorism.

A Howard defeat would have been a setback for the Anglosphere, a disaster for the United States and a catastrophe for George W. Bush (and Tony Blair). And it would have been celebrated as such — make no mistake — by France, Germany, Middle Eastern despots, the United Nations, and the massed NGOs (non-governmental organizations) of the "international community."

But Howard won. Indeed, he won a landslide of sweeping proportions — something rare by the standards of the cautious Aussie electorate. After three terms in office — when the usual sentiment of voters is "Time for A Change" — Howard actually increased his majority to an unassailable 30 seats. He gained control of the Senate — the first time since 1981 that the Coalition has controlled both Houses.

...Al Qaeda has received a serious setback, Kofi Annan a rebuke, France and Germany a disappointment — and the media elites a slap in the face so stinging that outside Australia Howard's victory has been a non-story.

Not for the first time, America owes the Australian people a hearty vote of thanks. Something on the lines of "Good on ya, Cobber. Have an ice-cold tube of Fosters on us."

Better yet, Afghanistan followed suit with their election on Saturday... with no violence to mar the historic day...

Many hoped Afghanistan's historic presidential election Saturday would bring an end to decades of war; others prayed it would lead to a strong new government that could improve education and create jobs in this poverty-stricken land.

As people lined up to vote across this long-suffering country, where 100,000 security forces including U.S. troops were deployed to thwart attacks from Taliban insurgents, ordinary Afghans expressed optimism that they were casting ballots for a new era -- despite a controversy over allegations of electoral fraud.

"I am old, but this vote is not just for me. It is for my grandchildren," said Nuzko, 58, a widow who stood in line at a Kabul voting station. Like many Afghans, she uses only one name. "I want Afghanistan to be secure and peaceful."

Gul Sum, a 60-year-old housewife, said the election was a chance for the country's often-
warring ethnic groups to unite and to give women -- many of them clad in all-enveloping burqas or in black veils as they waited to vote -- an unprecedented exercise in power.

"For the first time, women are having a say in the future of Afghanistan," Gul Sum said. "We are fed up with war."

The contest pitted interim President Hamid Karzai, installed after the U.S.-led invasion after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, against 15 other candidates in a direct election unprecedented in a country that has known monarchy, Soviet occupation, warlord-fueled civil war and the Taliban theocracy in the past quarter-century. A run-off will be held if there is no majority winner.

"Everyone knows Hamid Karzai will win, so what is the point of voting?" said Mohammed Nahim, a restaurant owner, who couldn't be bothered to cast a ballot. "No one will beat him."

Well, at least he's learning how to act like many Americans at the polls. Jokes aside, this is beyond historic, and deserves more coverage than it will get. We've accomplished something truly wonderful in Afghanistan, and it would be nice if people took time to realize the sacrifices and efforts of our soldiers and leaders and what they've done.

AllahPundit has some great pics up. Aussie blogger Tim Blair has been celebrating for three days straight. Maybe President Bush summed it up best when talking about the Afghan elections...

The first person to vote in the presidential election, three years after the Taliban ruled that country with such barbarism, was a 19-year-old woman, an Afghan refugee, who fled her homeland during the civil war.

Here's what she said: "I cannot explain my feelings, just how happy I am. I would never have thought I would be able to vote in this election."She's voting in this election because the United States of America believes that freedom is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world. (Applause.) And today is an appropriate day for Americans to remember and thank the men and women of our Armed Forces who liberated Afghanistan. (Applause.)

Damn right.