Today's article in the NY Times about 12 Green Berets keeping the peace and rebuilding a town's infrastructure is another fascinating look at how our armed forces are expanding their skill sets to include the rebuilding of a country. "We train to take down governments, but I've never been schooled in building one back up," the captain who leads the team said. "This is new territory."

What is happening in Iraq these days is nothing short of historical. I have no doubt that our military is finding itself using expertise they never knew they had - which made me think, just how do they know what to do? Did we give them all classes in rebuilding a country? Are they all well-schooled in civil affairs? Not officially, but in truth, they have lived their lives in America which is one of the best training grounds they could have had for what they face now. Growing up and living in a democracy like America provides our troops with the background they need. Will they make mistakes? Sure. But do they understand the importance of freedom and democracy? Do they "get" why people protesting in Iraq is a good thing? Absolutely.

America is an idea, a living laboratory of the democratic experiment. Freedom of speech, religion, press, these are things that we take for granted after 200 years. These ideas are new to Iraq after 30 years of a brutal dictatorship. The NY Times article discusses how the Iraqis in this town appear to trust only the soldiers as "honest brokers" and seem reluctant to take up rebuilding efforts on their own. This seems to me like a psychological/cultural backlash from so many years of oppression. A backlash from years of trusting no one, of fearing betrayal from even family members.

In other words, this rebuilding effort is going to take time and patience. A democratic Iraq, a free Iraq, is an idea, an experiment that has only just begun.