Here’s Michael Rubin:

Success is evident: Iraqis can choose from dozens of television and radio channels, and scores of newspapers. Elections, political debate, and compromise are the norm. When chaos reigns, refugees flee. Why then have more than a million Iraqis returned to their country since liberation? Insurgency and terrorism are tragic. They were once to be found in Peru and Turkey as well. There, we did not undermine democracy with calls to strike deals with terrorists. Too many critics of President Bush treat Iraq as an excuse to grind political axes which have little or anything to do with Iraq. This is unfair to Iraqis.
Three years on, it is clear that success is not limited to Iraq. In 2005, Syria witnessed its two freest elections in a half century. How ironic, then, that only expatriate Iraqis could participate. While Arab regimes once sought to channel public anger to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Arab intellectuals and activists now debate dissent, reform, and democracy: Does top-down democratization have merits? The bottom-up approach? How to differentiate between NGOs and GONGOs (government-operated NGOs)? How best to support independent labor unions?
While bloggers may try to offer informed comment without ever stepping foot in Iraq, and journalists may focus on the daily blood, the greatest legacy of Iraq’s liberation may be the new Middle Eastern discourse. Bush deserves credit for providing a catalyst. But it is the Iraqi people, Lebanese journalists, Egyptian dissidents, Tunisian bloggers, and many other courageous citizens who are alone responsible for creating a new, more democratic order.

Michael Ledeen, Peter Brookes, Jonathan Foreman and more have more to say today here.