Via Instapundit, Howard Owens squares on the Iraqi restoration. Challenges, hardships - but mostly good news.

The king quote is one that perfectly describes my own attitude - especially after having read about Japan's occupation:

Nobody ever promised -- not the President, not Don Rumsfeld, not any neo-con you care to name -- that the rebuilding of Iraq would be easy and without costs. Personally, I said it would be easier than the leftists said it would be, but I never said it would be easy. And so far, nothing has happened to change my mind. It is going pretty much as I expected.

Two points I always return to. First, to the naysayers or daily pants-soilers: what did you imagine the "difficulties" and "challenges," as described by the Bush administration, would be? Lots of parking tickets? A rise in shoplifting? Second, it truly has turned out as I expected. I've said this many times but I can't say it enough: read about the Japanese and German occupations. Nothing went completely as planned and both nations suffered with unrest, crime, confusion, and despair while they struggled forward towards the hope of redemption.

Japan took seven years. Consider the pessimism and baseless criticism that has been rattling in the five months since Baghdad fell, and imagine that it might happen sixteen times again. Those of us with great expectations of the Iraqis have the fortitude to withstand the next years, I think - especially those Americans and allies in charge and on the ground in Iraq. The others, who bite their cheeks with tiny thoughts of doubt, are likely to run out of energy much sooner.