If already thousands of them have lined up, joined the police department,etcetera when they face the high number of insurgents and other militias - how much do these folks already embrace a nation with a much more free structure.

Freedom isn't free, Lindy. We paid dearly for it in America during the American Revolution and again during the Civil War.

Iraq is right now undergoing their own revolution. You can't force everyone to embrace freedom but you can give some folks an opportunity to make their own nation and to choose.

The west will strengthen its hold on Iraqis. It is merely a numbers game. The young folks now getting a better education will be teenagers in just a few years. The angry insurgents will have less recruit fodder and the new government will have a much higher number of volunteers. It's a numbers game. When insurgents are outnumbered - they will be the one's living in fear. The Iraqi police have already been overeager when dealing with identified insurgents. They know this is a life/death struggle for their freedom.

Almost all the suicide bombing plots have been copycat jobs by messed up heads already here in the states, the UK or wherever. Al Qaeda as an organization is seriously crippled and has lost its heads. Bin Laden is still out there but even other Muslim fanatic see he has brought nothing but pain to the Middle East. He has to watch his own 'friends' and 'disciples; because they are more likely to kill him or betray him than a US commando team.

Yes, the incessant bombings, retaliations, political killings are a nightmare. However there's a certain common denominator that's being played to here and so revolution in the Middle East has always been more violent and filled with many small skirmishes rather than huge battles.

Iraq is being rebuilt. Slowly but surely the nation is progressing and when the insurgency is slowly outnumbered and dies out by attrition - Iraq will finally be on its way to a new 'middle-east' version of democracy. A first in that region.

Iran fears it because Iran has a lot of young people who hate their lifestyle and government. Once Iraq settles down, Iranians of all classes will envy the freedoms enjoyed by their new democratic neighbor. Of this the Iranian leadership already fully understands.

You hear very little from the Saudis. Why? Because they await the time things settle down and less pressure is put on their regime by Muslim extremists. Iraq siphons away all the fanatics from these neighboring nations and brings them to Iraq.

The flypaper analogy still holds true. Granted, it is now one ugly piece of flypaper.

The next 10 years will tell how it will turn out in the middle east. I am very hopeful everything will work out for the best.