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Sucess in Iraq will be the establishment of a stable domestic government, which does not need support from any outside goverment to prop itself up.
As far as I can see, the earliest this will occur is about 10 to 20 years after the withdrawal of American troops, following a vicious civil war which will leave three nations - one Shiite, one Sunni, one Kurd.
All we are doing between now and then is propping up puppets and enriching certain firms.
Has certain parrallels to what we did in Vietnam - propping up puppets and enriching certain firms. Of course, it was 3 not 20 years after we left that the tanks rolled into Saigon, but hey.
Note that leaving the adjective Democratic out of the first sentence was not an oversight. Excepting Turkey (which is in any case not Arab), I see precious little evidence that an Arab democratic government can be stable.
Of course, by Democratic, I use western definitions of that term - under which China is not a democracy, etc.
-Arc
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