A reader writes:

I was utterly disillusioned regarding Iraq’s chances until very recently, and have been highly skeptical that any of the recent good news signaled any real progress. In the last couple of weeks, however, I’ve started to see cause for hope that I have been wrong. Some of it is the precipitous decline in violence, some the increasing willingness of ordinary Iraqis outside of Al Anbar to come forward and help us make things safer. The joint Shia-Sunni fatwa against violence is a part, as is the reopening of roads closed by the security deficit.

The real reasons, however, that I’m able to muster some cautious optimism are my positive conversations with my girl, currently on her second deployment in Baghdad. The significance of this is only evident if I back up and provide some perspective. We are both military intelligence, filling somewhat similar roles for different units. Our first deployments overlapped significantly, and we were able to compare my experience in northern Iraq with hers in Baghdad, and the contrast was a source of despair for her: despite Baghdad’s great resources, it became evident that our kind of intelligence was neglected and accomplishing nothing there. (I can't elaborate on our kind of intelligence, except to say its exercise is expensive, somewhat arcane and does not involve anything like torture. Perhaps that explains its neglect in the Rumsfeld era.)

For me, this fact elicited rage: many units were essentially reduced to driving around until something blew up  including convoys of which my fiancée was a part! Meanwhile, attempts to share with Baghdad leadership the techniques that had worked so well in the north ran into excuses and disinterest. 2006’s promise to be the year that paid for all the mistakes faltered, then reversed.

This time around, it’s all different.