(UTC)

Things are not this simple. There is much dispute over wheather the US succesfully installed a democracy, since the new government is becoming more and more authoritarian, candidates were banned from recent elections, there have been fraud claims during all 3 elections and many human rights violations have taken place. Also Iraq's status as a US ally (leave alone major US ally) is questionable, due to the strong ties to Iran of many leading Shi'a and Kurdish figures and the growth increasing influence of Muqtada al-Sadr's political party. Also the insurgency is far from quelled, although it's not as deadly as it was around 2006-2007, with at least 4,000 civilians, 900 security forces killed this year it is still one of the most deadly insurgencies on earth.  19:26, 4 January 2011