G. in Baghdad is largely impressed with the city's renewal after military liberation from the dreadful shadow of Hussein, but still worried of the dangers faced in the midst of inevitable post-war indecision and desperation:

I don’t want to give the impression here that every thing is all right and there is no crisis in Iraq, I just want to say that the Americans had - and still have - a perfect opportunity in Iraq, an opportunity they won’t have anywhere else, they could have won the hearts and minds of the Iraqis from the first week after the toppling of the regime, but instead they just provided the extremists with all the pretexts they need - as if they needed any- to attack the Americans they have wasted a good deal of good intensions and hope. please stop and start doing your homework properly, I don’t want my country to be another breeding place for Osamas and lunatic terrorists.

G., my friend, occupation is meant to materially and socially stabilize the country as best any foreign power can do. But the politics of your nation - from within an accepted boundary of pluralist, universal-suffrage representative democracy - are your business. Americans can maintain secure, secret ballots; they can't and won't run your city council election for you. Borrow a soapbox from the market, sketch up some visual aids if you'd like, invite your friends and ideological colleagues, and start stumping for whatever alternative you want to see avert the evils of Islamofascism and Pan-Arabism - yourself. Get cracking, kid. Liberty means work.