Instapundit linked up this recent Jerry Pournelle article about what may be the best way to rebuild Iraq, and I tend to agree with him. Unfortunately I also think it'll end up being the road map to our failure there. The whole thing is being managed by people who are part of a strong central government, and it's just human nature to think building a strong central government elsewhere will result in the same good. It's what we're doing in Afghanistan after all. But, as Pournelle notes, such an approach nearly always leads to a "one man, one vote, once" scenario.

Then again, we're still sitting on the Balkans, and haven't made any plans I know of to leave. Same with Afghanistan. I just don't know about this one.