...That mistakes have been made in postwar Iraq is not in doubt, but that predicted disasters have not transpired is rarely acknowledged. The Coalition, like the U.N., planned for a humanitarian catastrophe when there was none. Contrary to some pessimists, Iraq has not fallen apart. Far from destroying Iraq's territorial integrity, the Coalition has restored it, bringing the Kurdish safe haven back into Iraq. There have been remarkably few revenge killings so far, thanks to the Coalition presence, and equally little of the predicted ethnic conflict. Hundreds of thousands of ethnically cleansed Kurds have not rushed back to their homes nor have they punished their Arab oppressors. There has been little of the reverse ethnic cleansing seen in Kosovo where the Albanians often dispensed rough justice to their former Serb overlords. But the Coalition has mismanaged the postwar media. The sad truth is that Iran was better prepared to broadcast to the newly liberated Iraq than the U.S. As a result, Iran's new Arabic television station, Al-Alam, was putting out anti-Coalition propaganda within days of the fall of Baghdad.

The main Coalition mistake has been to put sensitivity before common sense. The initial wave of looting was tolerated to allow Iraqis to let off steam. In retrospect, stringent curfews and the clear imposition of order would have been preferable. There would have been many complaints and fewer scenes of cheering Iraqis, but newfound freedom of expression would not have been confused with the right to steal...