MARIO VARGAS LLOSA:

I spent nearly all of Sunday, January 30 glued to the TV, following the reports, on all the internacional channels, on the Iraqi elections. It had been a long time since I was so moved by a political event.

To be truthful, I was “hoping against hope” for what happened. Not because I’m psychic, but from what I learned during my short visit to the country, in late June-early July of 2003, where, in all the places I visited, I noticed a generalized sense of relief and great hope after the fall of the Baath and Saddam Husein regime.

Read the rest, available thanks to Fausta's translation.