The great momentous and thunderous silence from Afghanistan
What story haven't you heard in the past couple of days from our media?

Massive explosions were reported throughout Kabul, Herat and other major cities in Afghanistan as the nation descended further into chaos. Representatives of the ousted Taliban regime struck polling stations across the country as the promised campaign of intimidation began. It is reported that several candidates for positions in the nation have died as well. After the initial reports of violence the turnout has been poor to non existent at polling stations across the nation.

A UN election observer was reported to state that so few people have voted there is no way the results of this election could possibly be considered legitimate.

Such a story would have worldwide front page headlines. People would be bellowing that this was the proof that the US abandoned Afghanistan for its ill-conceived adventure in Iraq.

Instead, silence. Little to no broadcast media seems to even care about the completely violence free election with "massive" voter turnout which occurred for the first time in Afghanistan.

Does this mean that the West can pack up and depart Afghanistan in victory? Absolutely not. We are going to be there for a very long time. But this is a tremendously important first step, and calls into question those who claim the Taliban is 'winning' in Afghanistan, or the nation is in 'chaos' or Karzai is the 'Mayor of Kabul at best'.

In my opinion this represents a small step forward for the entire Middle East. Once which I hope proves contagious.