See this Observer article:

It begins and ends with the children. They stayed away from the al- Gazaly school in southern Baghdad when the streets were murderous - their parents moved out and their PE teacher was shot dead during the mundane act of having a haircut. Now, one by one, cautiously, determinedly, noisily, they are returning to their desks, bringing the school back from the brink. Their hopeful faces reflect, perhaps, the new and fragile optimism dawning in Iraq.

It began as a whisper, but every day the voices grow louder, daring to believe that a country which threatened to tear itself apart is coming together. American deaths are down; Iraqi deaths are reported to be down. Refugees are returning home; shops and businesses are reopening. US generals, whose army was said to be ‘broken’, now give upbeat assessments that they are nearing a ‘tipping point’ - not merely the end of the beginning, but the beginning of the end. Could America be about to turn around a disaster?It is important to keep a sense of perspective. The deaths of five US soldiers and one sailor last Monday took this year’s total to 853, the worst annual toll since 2003. The independent website Iraq Body Count says 79 Iraqis were killed last Sunday, 28 on Monday, 32 on Tuesday, 29 on Wednesday, 40 on Thursday and 23 on Friday. Sceptics say the killing may have slowed only because Shia and Sunni Muslims are now so segregated and it is too soon to regard the lull as anything but that.

And yet, touring one of Baghdad’s most violent districts last week, The Observer found ordinary Iraqis making a stand against the insurgents and death squads. Exhausted by grief, they appeared to have made the pragmatic choice that, however unwelcome the American occupiers might be, they still offer the least worst option when compared with suicide bombers and nihilism. In hot and dusty streets of relative calm, people spoke of concerns for everyday living - electricity, water, sewerage - as much as fear of death.

….the rest here.