Brain Fertilizer

And here is an article that explains why reporting is flawed.

Of course, not everything is going peachy, and it could be going better. Here is an honest evaluation from the same article:

Not everything has gone well in Iraq. U.S. forces won a stunning military victory; diplomats botched the occupation. Interagency wrangling delayed establishment and hampered operation of a free Iraqi media outlet. Rather than put an Iraqi face on occupation, Bremer sought the spotlight. Many career diplomats treated President George W. Bush's goals for a democratic Iraq with disdain. Policy flip-flops confused Iraqis looking for consistency. Bremer's personal foibles, especially his tendency to treat mediators as adversaries and personalize politics, antagonized Iraqis. Because of his abuse of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, some Iraqis now compare Bremer to Ayatollah Sadiq Khalkhali, hanging judge of the Iranian Revolution. Bremer's abuse of the judiciary has undermined Iraqis' faith in American promises of democracy as much as a small number of CIA contractors and the 800th Military Police Brigade undermined faith in American human-rights standards. The U.S. military failed to adequately secure the border; Bremer's decision last October to veto any contribution of Turkish troops to guard the non-Kurdish portion of the Syrian-Iraqi border has had profound consequence on the security of both Iraqis and American forces. Rather than encourage political parties which span ethnic and sectarian identification, the State Department and British Foreign Office did the opposite. Bremer's decision to hold party-slate elections rather than single-member constituency elections will push Iraq further toward the failed Lebanese model rather than true democracy. Ironically, Jordan abandoned nationwide party-slate elections because they disproportionately favored militant Islamists.

I still think things have already turned for the better. I have seen some minor signs that the Iraqis realize they are now working and fighting for their own country, not for the Americans. They are starting to believe that the United States will pull out someday, and the sooner they can stabilize the country, the sooner we will leave.

You see, the insurgents don't actually want us out! At least, they don't want us to leave on our terms. They want us to hang around for a few years, acting as an international recruiting tool (Jin Islamists and Get A Chance To Kill Americans, the Pawns of the Great Satan!), and then leave bloody and beaten, like the Soviets out of Afghanistan.

But the Iraqis aren't capable of standing up to the insurgents and defeating them. We are stronger than the insurgents, but the insurgents are stronger than the Iraqis at this point; the Iraqis need time, training, and equipment. But the early signs of their standing up for their own nation will accelerate, and bear unmistakeable fruit a few months down the line. I think things will be quite a bit more stable six months from now...