(10.) "Isn't it great that Iraqis are now free to flood their streets with tens of thousands of protesters in open demonstrations?"

(9.) "There's no physical security without economic security."

(8.) "Iraqis cannot recover from 40 years of Hussein's savage brutality overnight; it will take decades."

(7.) "Political quotas will facilitate fairness and the political viability of the future Iraq."

(6.) "We're confiscating thousands of guns to reduce violence and killing in Baghdad."

(5.) "We probably alienated thousands of Iraqis by doing hundreds of midnight home invasions looking for a few insurgents."

(4.) "Conditions is Abu Ghraib under Hussein were unimaginable to Americans -- desperate pleas scrawled in excrement on the walls, crammed cells, torture, humiliation and unjust executions."

(3.) "We have to put ourselves in Iraqi shoes, and become culturally sophisticated enough to win the only battle that counts: the one for Iraqi hearts and minds."

(2.) "You have to expect a people who are suppressed and denied opportunity to erupt on occasion."

(1.) "Men without jobs feel emasculated and desperate -- that's why our number-one mission is to get Iraqis into jobs."

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10. Myth: The US public no longer sees Iraq as a central issue in the 2008 presidential campaign.

9. Myth: There have been steps toward religious and political reconciliation in Iraq in 2007. Fact: The government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has for the moment lost the support of the Sunni Arabs in parliament. The Sunnis in his cabinet have resigned. Even some Shiite parties have abandoned the government. Sunni Arabs, who are aware that under his government Sunnis have largely been ethnically cleansed from Baghdad, see al-Maliki as a sectarian politician uninterested in the welfare of Sunnis.

8. Myth: The US troop surge stopped the civil war that had been raging between Sunni Arabs and Shiites in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

7. Myth: Iran was supplying explosively formed projectiles (a deadly form of roadside bomb) to Salafi Jihadi (radical Sunni) guerrilla groups in Iraq. Fact: Iran has not been proved to have sent weapons to any Iraqi guerrillas at all. It certainly would not send weapons to those who have a raging hostility toward Shiites. (Iran may have supplied war materiel to its client, the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq (ISCI), which was then sold off from warehouses because of graft, going on the arms market and being bought by guerrillas and militiamen.

6. Myth: The US overthrow of the Baath regime and military occupation of Iraq has helped liberate Iraqi women. Fact: Iraqi women have suffered significant reversals of status, ability to circulate freely, and economic situation under the Bush administration.

5. Myth: Some progress has been made by the Iraqi government in meeting the "benchmarks" worked out with the Bush administration. Fact: in the words of Democratic Senator Carl Levin, "Those legislative benchmarks include approving a hydrocarbon law, approving a debaathification law, completing the work of a constitutional review committee, and holding provincial elections. Those commitments, made 1 1/2 years ago, which were to have been completed by January of 2007, have not yet been kept by the Iraqi political leaders despite the breathing space the surge has provided."

4. Myth: The Sunni Arab "Awakening Councils," who are on the US payroll, are reconciling with the Shiite government of PM Nuri al-Maliki even as they take on al-Qaeda remnants. Fact: In interviews with the Western press, Awakening Council tribesmen often speak of attacking the Shiites after they have polished off al-Qaeda. A major pollster working in Iraq observed,

3. Myth: The Iraqi north is relatively quiet and a site of economic growth. Fact: The subterranean battle among Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs for control of the oil-rich Kirkuk province makes the Iraqi north a political mine field. Kurdistan now also hosts the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas that sneak over the border and kill Turkish troops. The north is so unstable that the Iraqi north is now undergoing regular bombing raids from Turkey.

2. Myth: Iraq has been "calm" in fall of 2007 and the Iraqi public, despite some grumbling, is not eager for the US to depart. Fact: in the past 6 weeks, there have been an average of 600 attacks a month, or 20 a day, which has held steady since the beginning of November. About 600 civilians are being killed in direct political violence per month, but that number excludes deaths of soldiers and police. Across the board, Iraqis believe that their conflicts are mainly caused by the US military presence and they are eager for it to end.

1. Myth: The reduction in violence in Iraq is mostly because of the escalation in the number of US troops, or "surge."

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The following piece by The Associated Press on Jan. 1 lists the Top 10 distinctive sounds that highlight a day in a Baghdadi's life:

10. The roar of power generators. "Oh! They are our best friends, those generators", said Mahasen Chalabi, a 40-year-old accountant. "We've been living in war since 1980 and generators have been the one useful thing - we lose power in both summer and winter - and without the coolers and heaters, God knows how it'll be"....

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