[sarcasm] Providing even more evidence that, as one of our readers pointed out "We. Will. Lose.", [/sarcasm] we have this Chicago Tribune article: (free reg required, blah blah blah)

While the U.S. occupation of Iraq has been punctuated by attacks against soldiers and persistent lawlessness in Baghdad and the so-called Sunni Triangle, elsewhere in the country reconstruction projects are getting under way.

In the provinces, at least, some things are beginning to work.
...
[Soldiers] already have supervised the reconstruction of about 40 schools, 250 wells, eight water-treatment facilities, a police station, a town hall and stretches of road and bridges across the Tigris River. Soon, most of the unit is expected to move on to Baghdad.

"No doubt in my mind, we belong here," said Col. Chris Chopper, 52, a retired school principal from Albion, Mich., who oversees the facilities team. "People are going to be healthier. I'm sure we've increased life expectancy around here. Within five years, you'll see another Saudi Arabia, another Kuwait. Living standards will increase dramatically."
...
Some Iraqis directly touched by the projects initiated by the 308th Brigade say the Americans are doing a courageous job.

"The real job they have done is they have risked their lives to come here and save us," said Aziz Shakur Hassan, a chain-smoking doctor who works at a medical clinic the unit set up in Ad-Dujayal, a small town nearly razed under Saddam Hussein's regime.

Inside the clinic, where the electricity flickered, dozens of residents waited patiently to see local doctors, Army medics and Lt. Col. Greg Hammond, 55, an occupational therapist from Peru, Ind.

Hammond, a Vietnam veteran, soothed an 8-year-old boy who limped into a dank office. The boy, painfully thin, had gout, presumably because of malnutrition, Hammond said.

Later, Hammond cuddled a 2-year-old girl who had cerebral palsy. Placing the girl on the examining table--a metal desk--he waved his dog tags to try to get the girl to crawl for the first time.

The girl's mother looked on with an expression of awe as the baby made a motion to crawl.

"There is no magic cure," Hammond told the mother as he massaged the baby's back.

The whole thing's worth reading, if you're willing to get past the registration.

As with most things in the media, you learn almost as much from the silences as you do from the noise. For instance, heard anything lately about power problems? You'd have to listen very closely to hear the occasional asides that power is back up to pre-war levels and climbing fast.