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The New York Times has a series of articles detailing how improved security conditions in Baghdad due to increased US security presence there is positively affecting the city. The articles make no suggestions that it’s time to roll out the “Mission Accomplished” banner again but against the backdrop of the persistently bad news coming out of Iraq since Bremmer disbanded the Iraqi Army, it definitely makes for an interesting and, dare I say, encouraging read. The whole thing is only two pages, so don’t pass it up, but here are some highlights to stoke a discussion:

In interviews, she and her husband said they felt emboldened by the decline in violence citywide and the visible presence of Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint a few blocks away.

Still, it was a brave decision, one her immediate neighbors have not yet felt bold enough to make. Mrs. Aasan’s portion of Dora still looks as desolate as a condemned tenement. The trunk of a palm tree covers a section of road where Sunni gunmen once dumped a severed head, and about 200 yards to the right of her building concrete Jersey barriers block a section of homes believed to be booby-trapped with explosives.
…
With the additional American troops scheduled to depart, the Nidhal family said, Baghdad would be truly safe only when the Iraqi forces were mixed with Sunnis and Shiites operating checkpoints side by side — otherwise the city would remain a patchwork of Sunni and Shiite enclaves. “The police, the army, it has to be Sunni next to Shiite next to Sunni next to Shiite,” Abu Nebras said.
…
Laughter is also more common now in the Nidhal household — even on once upsetting subjects. At midday, Hanan’s sister, who teaches in a local high school, came home and threw up her hands in exasperation. She had asked her Islamic studies class to bring in something that showed an aspect of Islamic culture. “Two boys told me, ‘I’m going to bring in a portrait of Moktada al-Sadr,’” she said.

She shook her head and chuckled. Mr. Sadr is an anti-American cleric whose militia, the Mahdi Army, has been accused of carrying out much of the displacement and killings of Sunnis in Baghdad. They can joke because they no longer fear that the violence will engulf them.

It’s certainly dangerous to revel too long in these modest gains but it would be criminal not to recognize that some gains have seemed to materialize. Can these short-term gains be solidified into the foundation for a real revitalization? I personally remain pessimistic, but it looks as though some Iraqis are finding reason to be optimistic again.