Historians may well mark this as the moment Iraq entered a new phase of existence, beginning to enter the Western world the way South Korea and Japan did after U.S. occupations:

BAGHDAD - The secular challenger who stunned Iraq with his razor-thin parliamentary election win turned his attention to negotiations over a future government Saturday even as supporters of the prime minister vowed to fight the results.

Ayad Allawi's two-seat win was hailed as a startling comeback for a politician who just four years ago was shunned as a U.S.-backed puppet, but the closeness of the race meant his road to regaining the premiership was anything but guaranteed.
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Regardless of the final outcome, the results of the parliamentary vote were a turning point and served as a rejection of the domination of Shiite religious parties who are closely aligned with Iran and rose to power after the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime in 2003.

It's really rather astounding: in only a few elections, Iraqi politics have gone from representative tribalism to at least a limited marketplace of ideas. While Iraq still has many problems, it's evolving by leaps and bounds next to nearly any other Arab state -- and the numbers bear that out: electricity, water, sewage service, fuel, cell phone usage, internet access, automobile ownership,and housing are all improving dramatically from pre-liberation levels, while the free press has exploded into thousands of indepedent media voices. Perhaps most auspiciously, the markets have spoken strongly in favor of the fledgling democracy: Iraqi bonds are now valued higher than bonds issued by California.

Iraqi blogger Iraqpundit celebrates, and suggests Allawi will form a governing coalition with the Kurds.

In the streets people are celebrating. They sang songs, beeped their horns, fired guns, and some even chanted anti-Maliki slogans. At least in Mansour they did; I can't say for the rest of Baghdad. The celebrations have been quieted by rain. In this part of the world, rain is considered a blessing. It seems somehow appropriate that the day ends in rain.

Iraqis can see that their votes mean something. This really is an amazing day.