Given the tremendous damage inflicted on Iraqi civil society by more than three decades of dictatorship, the Iraqis are doing remarkably well.

Slow But Steady Progress in Iraq
James Phillips, The Heritage Foundation Original Article

Pessimists have been repeatedly wrong about the prospects for postwar political progress in Iraq. They doubted that the Iraqis would finish writing an interim constitution on time in 2003; they doubted that sovereignty could be transferred to an interim Iraqi government by that constitution’s deadline in 2004; and they doubted that elections could be conducted on the constitution’ ambitious timetable, in January 2005. They were wrong on all counts. And now they bemoan Iraq’s relatively slow progress in forming a transitional government after the January 30th elections.