Iraq occupation offers tough lessons

Ahead of Monday's surprise transfer of power in Baghdad to an Iraqi leadership, US officials were already trumpeting a new era of freedom for Iraq after Saddam Hussein's downfall. But even the invasion's most ardent supporters acknowledge the occupation did not go quite as planned.

"We have failed to come anywhere near meeting the post-war expectations of Iraqis for security and post-conflict reconstruction," said Larry Diamond, ex-adviser to the occupation authority and now a political scientist in California.

Officials insist they have made good progress in rebuilding post-Saddam Iraq, citing the formation of a new government, the adoption of a provisional constitution and the beginnings of a security force, financial and legal system.

They say the coalition has completed more than 20,000 projects to build or renovate schools, orphanages, medical facilities, roads, power grids and industrial infrastructure.

But by many standards the nearly 15-month occupation has been a litany of failure or partially accomplished goals, plagued by fighting, bombings, murders, abductions and sabotage that are frightening away investors.

Only a fifth of the expected 35,000-strong army has been recruited and more than two-thirds of the 90,000 Iraqi police are untrained, according to Pentagon figures.