I have long held that the metric of whether or not a country has an independent government is whether it successfully takes actions that its nearest controlling neighbor doesn't like. To my great astonishment, Iraq is actually showing signs of this, condemning the U.S. for detaining thousands of Iraqis (and perhaps not incidentally, a number of journalists attempting to provide independent news coverage) without charge or even any statement about what they are suspected of, and attempting to change the U.N. resolution giving U.S. troops immunity from Iraqi law.

If they actually succed at this (and manage to survive the civil war in progress), I'll actually have to consider giving the U.S. military credit for having successfully changed the Iraqi government.

I'm not holding my breath, though.

Hat tip to Pacific Views.