Interesting, part 1

Know what I think is interesting? The way the Shrine of Imam Ali battle ended.

A bigwig of the shrine's faith stormed in, slapped the keys away from the corps of naughty insurgents who were abusing the holy site, and told them to drop their guns and g'wan home. Then he turned to tell the besieging foreign army to get lost, too. Everyone did as they were told! In fact, both sides publicly welcomed the news of the Grant Ayatollah's imminent arrival and the disarmament that would follow, even while continuing to swear death and damnation upon their respective opponent. Um... has anything like this happened before in modern politico-warfare? Wow...

To be quite honest, I haven't really seen anyone else in my circle say it, even though I imagine many think it, so I'll go ahead: I wish young neo-Iraq the best of luck, truly, and hope to see them succeed as an independent democracy with a happy and prosperous population. There are signs that, since the handover (note optimistic withholding of scare-quotes) it's slowly squirming its way out of anarchy, and it cheers me a little every time I hear about this. Yes, there's a long way to go before stability, but I think stability is a very possible outcome, and -- looking from right now into the future, shutting off perceptions based on the recent past -- I support the U.S. helping out where it can, painful as it is.

I look forward to seeing a free and friendly Iraq in 10 years, and having... very complicated feelings about how it came to be.