There are many hurdles Iraq has to get past. Military attacks are almost a piece of cake compared to what I consider the main milestone: getting a real election under their belt after which the participants peacefully accept the results. Do that once, and you're talking progress. Do it a few times, and we can talk "victory."

Israel still is hit by terror attacks, and is still dealing with groups that demand its extinction. Nevertheless, it has a working democracy, which includes almost all religions and factions in its government. It has a reasonably good economy, although still overly dependent on us IMO, and its citizens are well-off for the most part.

If Iraq can get at least to that point, I think they will be doing pretty damn good.

Long way to go yet, and there are other nations like Syria and Iran doing their best to prevent it.