In 2004, Iraq went badly wrong – except for supporters of the insurgency, in which case it went grimly well.
2005 does not hold out much hope of an improvement, although there are still some optimists around who feel that the elections on 30 January will prove a milestone.
The problem in 2004 was that neither of the two main strands of American policy worked. Neither politics nor security took hold.
Obviously, turning over the power to an interim government ahead of schedule, routing more insurgants, securing 80% of the country, tightening the borders, and pointing the dictator-less country towards democracy was of little importance to this leftist.