Working with Iraqis

I work with the local Iraqi government and my interactions with them are professional and personal. After a few months here I learned that most Iraqis want peace in their homeland. They want to send their children to safer schools, they want jobs so they can provide for their families, they want to go to the US to visit the American friends that are and have been here. THE IRAQIS WANT PEACE. The terrorists want to destroy. It is very hard to understand their feelings; we are here for a year and we go home to the safety of our families, they have to stay here and fight for their freedom, security and religion for the rest of their lives. I can not imagine being prosecuted because I am a Catholic. I can not imagine being afraid to go to church because a protestant could have placed a bomb inside. I can not imagine killing a fellow American because he said the Pope was wrong about one of our saints.
What does the US culture know about the Iraqi culture? Answer yourself that question and then I will tell you how wrong you are.
Life in Iraq is hard, but little by little is getting better; the water is flowing, the electricity fails less often, the police is going after the terrorists, and the Iraqi Army has the cojones to be an Army again. The Iraqis are taking control of their country (slowly), the Iraqis will save themselves. They have done it for thousands of years; they will survive as their ancestors have.