The White House spins Iraq as if to pern in a gyre, but the utter devastation of that country is impossible to disguise.   According to Zaid Salah, writing for Open Democracy, Iraq’s oil industry is crumbling, unemployment approaches 50%, electrical power is available only intermittently (3-5 hours a day, average, in Baghdad), queuing  for gasoline means waiting for days, energy has to be imported from Iran, US aid is drying up fast, and the budget for the Ministry of Justice has been cut by two thirds.  The budget for importing food is $1 billion short, and fuel prices, under IMF rules, are about to increase 1000%.  Why no protests, despite the fact that there were public protests of such conditions even under Sadaam?  Answer: the security situation is so bad that no one dare.  All the optimism in the world won’t get a great big smiley face to stick on that.

[Update, March 24: To the same effect is Anthony H. Cordesman, interviewed in the New York Times by Bernard Gwertzman, "Iraq: After Three Years of War, Results Are Disastrous."