About two weeks ago I had an interesting conversation with a few Iraqi men down in one of our market places. A few middle-aged men had approached me and were skeptical about the work we were doing and said he wished that he could trust the Americans, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do so. I asked if things had gotten better since February when we had arrived. He admitted that they had, but reminded me that that was only four months out of four years. I agreed, and talked about some of the positive civic improvements that were going on around him. He said he would try and be hopeful, and maybe he could meet me there in a few more months and tell me if his mind had changed.

His friend, who had remained silent broke in and asked, “why is it that when you invaded Kuwait, the country was fixed in just a few months, and is now once again very rich and prosperous?”