Sure hate the way, but why hate the victory?

The Iraqi cabinet voted overwhelmingly Sunday to approve the security agreement that sets the conditions for the Americans' continued presence in Iraq from Jan. 1 until the end of 2011. Next the measure goes to parliament, where it is expected to be approved as well.

Iraqis are telling each other the worst is behind us, and now we can look forward to the future. People are hoping to vote at the Jan. 31st provincial elections. And the economy is improving. In fact there are so many jobs available that Iraq has asked the Philippines to lift its ban on sending workers to Iraq.

In my own extended family people are mostly optimistic. Several of my aunts, uncles, and cousins have returned to Baghdad from neighboring countries where they had been waiting out the worst days. Those cousins who had left in the spring of 2007 have returned home and are working at such places as the ministry of education. Two other cousins are starting business together. Only one cousin who had returned to Baghdad briefly has decided to return to Amman again because he and his wife were not yet comfortable putting their children in Iraqi schools.

The better-informed followers of the Iraq story are saying the war is over, and the good guys won. Even the CIA chief said recently that Iraq is no longer the front of the al-Qaeda war. That leaves Obama. Of course, now that the campaign is over, maybe he might bring himself to say that the war may have been won while he was promising to abandon it.

Part of the reason for the continuing success, of course, is that U.S. troops have trained Iraqis so well that they are now effectively fighting terrorists themselves.

The extremists are now focused in the north near Mosul where they are terrorizing civilians. Also, the Kurds have been accused of terrorizing the Christians in that area.

Of course the NYT tells us Iraq remains fragile because Mookie is making threats. Yes, the Qom resident (and floundering student) has sent another statement to a mosque gathering calling on Iraq’s riff raff to fight the U.S. occupation.

But most Iraqis don’t take Moqtada Al Sadr seriously. He certainly is capable of getting a group of thugs together to make the lives of ordinary Iraqis miserable. But he miscalculates when he figures Iraqis want war with the U.S. more than they want to live with each other.