I'm totally ripping from Instapundit and the Belmont Club, but this is so smart, that I wish to archive it:

"This was not supposed to happen. April was supposed to mark the death rattle of the American occupation in Iraq. It was never meant to lead to joint Marine-Iraqi patrols in Fallujah or Iraqi commandos hunting down Moqtada Al-Sadr in Najaf. Yet the change did not proceed from "more American boots on the ground" nor from the provision of additional guards for the Baghdadi antiquities or an influx of NGOs. Still less was it the consequence of a grant of legitimacy from the United Nations or the messianic arrival of French troops. In fact it coincided with the departure of the Spanish contingent from Iraq. The change sprang from the correct application of the original strategy: building a democratic and free Iraq by recognizing the leadership which arose from the circumstances. It arose not from an imposed set of politically correct commissars in Baghdad but in complementing indigenous efforts with American strengths."

This is brilliant. In Directing Actors, we are instructed to create a safe space and set of circumstances, built around specific directions to give actors the freedom to perform. Be specific. The more specific you are as a director, the more freedom it gives the actor to bring emotional life to the performance. You can't lay out a rigid set of movements or facial expressions and expect to get a natural performance. What you do is lay out wood and gasoline and throw a match onto the space and capture the explosion on film. You can't control the explosion itself, nor would you want to. That's the actors choices and that's what performance is all about.

What can be considered bold and reckless by some, the invasion of Iraq without a grand strategy, can also have another intepretation - creating a safe space for leaders to arise and nations to be built by their OWN people, with our help and support. Great leaders are always products of their time and circumstances.

As horrible as the prison photos are, as horrible as the troops fighting and dying are, so long as we stay the course, I believe things will be better in Iraq in the long run. And the entire world will be better off, safer, and happier.