brightnorm,
Thanks for posting that, normally the news crews only focus on flashy news. I was in northern Iraq and delt with the Kurds on a daily basis, they want peace and rebuild their country. This is not going to be easy (look at Yugoslavia now) Mix nationalism, religion and traditions together and you have insanity stew! The way to prevent this is to instill hope in the populace and always strive to improve no matter what the cost.
The "Arab World" is not too thrilled with a free Iraq, it will destabilize their autocratic governments over time. I am sure that Syria and Iran are happy to see American faces looking at them on their borders. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif
Countries dominated by a religion tend to be a real cluster to deal with. Look at the mess Europe was in the middle ages (The Christian Millenium) Very violent and heading backwards instead of forwards. Luckily for Europe, they had the Arabs to trade with and slowly they pulled their head out of their collective asses. It took a thousand years for that to happen. Figure 30 years for Iraq to be free with the first 5 years a royal pain to stabilize the country.
Attaturk did it for Turkey when he was alive, he changed the alphabet, brought in intellectuals to teach in schools (Jewish ones!) he modernised Turkey. Iraq needs an Attaturk for themselves, an Iraqi with vision and will not stop until he sees the vision become reality. I wish all the Iraqis well, it is not going to be easy but they can do it.