JERRY POURNELLE thinks patience will be the key in reconstructing Iraq:

The central question in a democracy is, can you afford to lose the election? If you try and fail, is loss total? Will you be jailed, your property confiscated, your family jailed or killed? If the consequences of loss are enormous, then you don’t let the ballot box be the final decision. Nor should you.

The first thing we must do is assure the losers they can afford to lose, and that we will be there to protect them.

I think that Rumsfeld has figured this out. But how many others have?