Congratulations and best wishes to the people of Iraq on their resumption of sovereignty, two days ahead of schedule. The US occupation is now formally over.
It will be a tough road for a while, but a free people can accomplish much.
This is quite the coup (pun intended) for the Bush administration. It takes the wind out of the “insurgents'” sails, clears the table at the NATO conference, and as a special added bonus infuriates a lot of the media figures who had travelled to Iraq to pontificate.
Update: Some reactions by Iraqi bloggers, as collected by Michelle Catalano.
Hail our true friends, the Great People of the United States of America; The Freedom giving Republic, the nation of Liberators. Never has the world known such a nation, willing to spill the blood of her children and spend the treasure of her land even for the sake of the freedom and well being of erstwhile enemies.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, liberals!