Via Tacitus, we see there is some good news coming out of Iraq:
In a city so sacred that its soil is used to make the stones on which Shiites bow their heads in prayer, the American occupation of Karbala — 1,110 U.S. troops in a city of 500,000 — has emerged as a rare example of a postwar experience gone right.
In gestures large and small — from reopening an amusement park with free admission to restoring electricity to twice its prewar level, from stopping looting with a rapidly reconstituted police force, to a conscious effort to respect religious sensitivities — Karbala seems to have avoided the bitterness and disenchantment that has enveloped Baghdad and other cities.
Go read the whole thing. Iraq will not be rebuilt overnight, and we are still losing soldiers, but we are making progress.