I spent last week driving and flying around central Iraq. There are so many cross-currents swirling, the only way I can summarize them is with this postcard home:

Biggest Surprise -- How dirt-poor Saddam Hussein had made his own country -- thanks to his wars with Iran and Kuwait, 10 years of sanctions and 30 years of tyranny. Outside the main cities, most of the houses people were living in appeared to be mud-brick huts, often with open sewers and no sidewalks. Many villages and towns here look like ancient Babylon with electricity poles. Many Iraqis appeared bedraggled.

In short, Saddam had broken his people long before we ever arrived. It is no wonder that so many Iraqi soldiers just ripped off their uniforms and fled, and that much of the damage done to U.S. forces was done largely by Baath guerrillas.

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The Best Thing About This Poverty -- Iraqis are so beaten down that a vast majority clearly seem ready to give the Americans a chance to make this a better place. And, more important, it would take so little investment, and so little basic security, to improve the economy here and have an immediate impact on people's lives. The peace is still very winnable, as long as we get things moving forward -- which is why the Pentagon's ineptitude in postwar planning is so frustrating.
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Most Important Statistic I Heard -- Iraq is 60 percent Shiite. Of those 60 percent, maybe 30 percent would favor a Khomeini-like Islamic republic. That's only 18 percent of the country. As such, two things seem clear: The next president of Iraq will be Shiite, and Iraq will not be Iran.

Most Eagerly Asked Question From an Iranian Journalist in Iraq -- When are the Americans going to take over Iran?

Most Eagerly Asked Question From a Lebanese Journalist in Iraq -- When are the Americans going to take over Syria?

» Mercury News | 05/23/2003 | Making sense of Iraq