The Bush administration looks like it has finally scored a ringing success in Iraq. But, if one objective of Sunday's elections was to help defeat Iraq's ongoing insurgencies, then the exercise failed. The question now is how Iraq's next government will handle the insurgents. Before Sunday, they threatened voters. But U.S. troops led the effort to secure polling stations, while more than half of Iraq's eligible voters defied insurgent threats and exercised their first real chance for self-empowerment in history.

With Laurent Kabila's successful overthrow of Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko, American policy makers need to conduct a long-overdue reappraisal of the contours of African politics.