Defining Success

As Iraq transforms from enemy to non-enemy, we need to discuss what success in Iraq looks like. The reality is that Baghdad will not be New York city in a year or two or never. Take Fallujah, for example. This is Bill Ardolino reporting from this historic city.

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But Fallujans are remarkably insular; their local culture is famously mistrustful. A visitor from Ramadi or Baghdad is considered a foreigner. A Marine intelligence officer remarked to me that the first things Fallujans rebuilt after Operation al-Fajr were the gated walls surrounding their own houses. Another revealing anecdote was supplied by a Marine who cited a Western travel guide to Iraq circa the 1940's: it advised tourists in the region to steer clear of Fallujah, condemning the city as a notorious den of xenophobic smugglers and thieves.

Add decades of war and fealty to a Stalinist yet locally benevolent government to the mix, and you've got a difficult cultural stew of suspicion and missing initiative. Fallujans are proud and many are brave, but a number lack much will beyond the desire to personally prosper or just survive.
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My definition of Iraq is "a long term state that does not organize or facility at destruction of the free, western civilization". That leaves a lot of room for Iraq to become a state from the likeness of the US to a dictatorship like Pakistan. Of coarse, the closer to a free democratic republic, the better chance of the state staying friendly and cooperative in the transformation of the rest of the enemy world, but as long as they aren't preparing and planning for attack against free, western societies, I will define Iraq as a success.