DAVID PLOTZ HAS A SURVEY OF IDEAS, all of which seem pretty good to me, on how to rebuild civil society in Iraq.

One useful thing to remember: unlike Russians, Iraqis had a civil society, more or less, as recently as 35 years ago. Iraq is more like Eastern Europe than Russia in this regard: there are still plenty of people who can remember a different way of living.

Here, by the way, is something I wrote on the subject a few weeks ago. And Jeff Jarvis has been all over this question (with special attention to the role the Internet can play) — just keep scrolling.