....Finally, there is security, the most problematic area. For all of us, and especially those of us with friends living and working in Iraq, the continuing attacks are frightening. But it is worth trying to put it in some perspective. First, almost all of the attacks have taken place in the Sunni triangle, the area between Baghdad and Tikrit. There have been very few security problems in either the largely-Kurdish north or the largely-Shiite south. The Sunnis are, of course, only about a third of the population, but they held almost all of the power under Saddam, and it is understandable that resistance would center in Sunni-controlled areas.
Nonetheless, even there it must be remembered that it only takes a few people to carry out an attack, and the persistence of these attacks is not evidence that they are widely supported. Loyalists of the former regime are captured daily, and most of those on the most-wanted list are either dead or in custody. Both the presence of foreign fighters and the observation that bounties paid for attacks on coalition troops have recently quadrupled are evidence that loyalists of the former regime are having trouble recruiting Iraqis to their cause. And little wonder - blowing up humanitarian agencies, as they have recently taken to doing, is hardly a way to win friends among those benefited by those agencies. Their only hope is that they can convince coalition countries to cut and run, leaving a power vacuum in which they can seize by force what they could never win at the ballot box.
But the coalition, to its credit, shows no sign of cutting and running. Funds for reconstruction and stabilization have recently been allocated, both at the donor's conference in Madrid and by the US Congress. Moreover, the coalition is training Iraqis to keep the peace, so that, when foreign troops do leave, a power vacuum will not develop. As of now, there are about 100,000 Iraqis serving on the police force, in the military, and guarding the borders.
So, have we won the peace? Of course not - not yet. But are we losing it? No more than we were in 1946.
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