What Have We Accomplished In Iraq?

So Saddam has fallen, literally and figuratively:

An Iraqi man throws stones at a statue of President Saddam Hussein as it falls in central Baghdad April 9, 2003. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic/

So what have the results been like, are we successful or are we failing? We could ask these folks:

Residents walk with some of their belongings after passing a checkpoint on the bridge leading into Tikrit, Iraq Tuesday April 15, 2003. U.S. Marines started allowing residents to return to the city. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

Or maybe we could ask this woman:

An Iraqi woman carries some of her belongings after passing a checkpoint on a bridge leading into Tikrit, Iraq Tuesday, April 15, 2003. U.S. Marines started allowing residents to return to the city Tuesday, as the U.S. military set up cordons around Tikrit to prevent Saddam's senior leaders, and, in a long shot, perhaps even the dictator himself, from slipping away. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, Pool)

Or this Shi’ite from the south part of Iraq:

Iraqi Shiite Shiekh Iyaad Jamal al-Deen from Nasiriyah, speaks at the opening of the U.S.-sponsored meeting on post-war Iraq Tuesday, April 15, 2003 at the Tallil Air Base, in southern Iraq. The United States convened a meeting of Iraqi opposition groups for the first time since Saddam Hussein's fall to spell out its vision of the initial steps for Iraq's future. (AP Photo, Leila Gorchev, Pool)

All three speak freely for the first time in 30 years. And some of their fellow citizens have begun to speak out against things they see wrong:

Iraqi men hold a banner as they pass U.S. Marines in Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday April 15, 2003. After the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime last week, looters stole and smashed priceless archeological treasures and burned Islamic Library which holds one of the oldest surviving copies of the Quran. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla

We have found a pretty definitive sign of Saddam coddling terrorists:

Leader of the Palestinian Liberation Front Abu Abbas. US central command has announced the arrest of the terrorist.(AFP/File/Joel Robine)

And we are still helping to improve the lives of ordinary Iraqis:

U.S. Marine Lcpl J.E. Sabalboro, 24, from Guam, left, holds a sign in Arabic reading: 'Free water', at a checkpoint, Wednesday April 16, 2003, as he distributes water to Iraqis returning after several days to their northern Iraqi hometown of Tikrit which they fled to escape fightings. The U.S. military set up cordons around President Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit to prevent regime leaders from escaping before they swept through Hussein's stronghold on Tuesday with less resistance than they expected although confronted by rage and insults. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

We are still winning the hearts of the people that count:

Sgt Willis William, of Flagstaff, AZ, with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, shakes hands with an Iraqi boy during a patrol at a park in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah Tuesday, April 15, 2003. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

Much to the consternation, confusion and despair of those who don’t:

French President Jacques Chirac (L) speaks as Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder listen during an international law conference in St. Petersburg, April 12, 2003. Even before the fighting stopped, the three European powers were moving to build bridges to the United States and ensure their companies a share in rebuilding the real bridges in Iraq -- along with roads, runways, oilfields and schools. Photo by Grigory Dukor/Reuters

Not too bad for a month’s hard work.