“The three-day gathering in Warsaw was an annual opportunity for coalition members to step back a little and give each other a broad perspective on what their mutual blood and treasure is yielding here. Attendees ask questions. Make contacts. Get the big picture. As the coalition continues to build – and insist on — an Iraqi government based on transparency, honesty and good intentions, the annual conference meant not only to encourage those ideals but embody them a little.”

This is a quote from a Centcom Newsroom piece yesterday. The meeting was structured such that:

Reporters were not invited, and hard copies of the briefings were not printed, lest they be left behind in some kebab house. But this conference was not about secrets. Nothing was too sensitive to be discussed in front of invited guests from non-coalition members —Egypt,Saudi Arabia,Bahrain, Qatar — who are shareholders in Iraq’s future whether they have troops there or not.

What an excellent way to get some REAL work done. No reporters, no fanfare, just some major sit-downs to analyze and assess the situation on the ground by all the major players who have a stake in success. We need more of this.

“Stability and success in Iraq is very important for us, as it is for any country in the Middle East,�Egypt ’s ambassador to Poland, Yehya Elramlawy, said afterward. “It was very informative to gain an overview of the efforts of the coalition there.�

The conference was also a reminder that this coalition is filled with countries that have conquered what Iraq is fighting. The transition from dictatorship and command economics to democracy and free markets is always driven by hope, and always characterized by pain, and it is one that most of the countries fighting for Iraq’s future know well; Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Albania, The Czech Republic and Slovakia both, Korea, which oversees reconstruction efforts in Kurdistan, and may know the perils of division best of all. And then there was theU.K. , which is only now bringing the militia-fueled sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland to a close — after nearly 40 years.

“Most of the countries here have suffered and it is great to have people who have suffered help others now suffering,� said Lt. Gen. Nasier Abadi, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Joint Forces. “They know what we are into.�

The beauty of this gathering is its simultaneous complexity and simplicity. These people are all well trained, life-long professionals. They have a collective experience with war, insurgency, defense, and security that those of us “civilians” could not conceive. Collectively, they have literally seen it all. An assessment:

The conference was also a reminder that this coalition is filled with countries that have conquered what Iraq is fighting. The transition from dictatorship and command economics to democracy and free markets is always driven by hope, and always characterized by pain, and it is one that most of the countries fighting for Iraq’s future know well; Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Albania, The Czech Republic and Slovakia both, Korea, which oversees reconstruction efforts in Kurdistan, and may know the perils of division best of all. And then there was theU.K. , which is only now bringing the militia-fueled sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland to a close — after nearly 40 years.

“Most of the countries here have suffered and it is great to have people who have suffered help others now suffering,� said Lt. Gen. Nasier Abadi, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Joint Forces. “They know what we are into.�

Poland, likeRomania, stood as a model for how the Soviet-imposed command economy that Iraq knows well can be uprooted by capitalism and globalization, with happy results. Poland’s recent entry in to the European Union has touched off a real estate boom in Warsaw, locals told me, and in the city’s breathtakingly restored historic section, tourism thrives.

In Iraq, the ten months since last November’s gathering in Albania has seen the outburst of the sectarian violence in Baghdad that has become not only the dominant security challenge in the capital but, frustratingly, the broad-stroke media storyline for an entire effort. The broad range of briefings, from intelligence and security to local governance and economic reconstruction, belied that simple pessimism.

The picture of Iraq presented to and by the coalition members over two full days was a complex one – every province was different, and every strategy was tailored to specific conditions on the ground. A security-handover schedule was presented with the caveat “excepting Anbar� — where the fight against the worst of the insurgency and Al Qaeda is still in U.S. hands — and calming troubled Baghdad remains the ultimate barometer of success.

Yet there is one broad storyline of progress in Iraq — Iraqis.

What is important, most of all in this piece, is the acknowledgement of the youth of the Iraqi Government. It IS, after all, only 4 months old (or so), and that it is run by people who were accustomed to life in a Saddam reality, is it any wonder that there are fits and starts at this new outlook on life in a post-Saddam world? Would any of us wake up the day after elections and just instinctively start ACTING like democratically elected and governed people? How does one actually learn to go from tyranny to democracy overnight, exactly? What are the milestones we would use to check our progress and moderate our behavior as we adjust to the crises we would be confronted with by those among us who might be slower learners?

“What’s different this year is that we have a lot more Iraqi leaders here to tell their own story,� Casey said. Gen. Abadi briefed Baghdad Security. National Security Council chief Dr. Mowaffak Al-Rubaie set out a plan — and here it was the United States’ turn to empathize – to instill a culture of cooperation among its military, police and civilian intelligence operations. In this, as in other government-building pursuits, the four-month-old Iraqi government’s youthfulness is an asset.

“We have an advantage,� Rubaie said, “in starting from scratch.�

That youthfulness remains a check on coalition members’ impatience, which was easy to imagine in representatives’ minds after a year that finds them, as Brigadier Simon Mayall put it with British delicacy, “in a bit tougher fight than we expected.� But there was no sign of it around the immense U-shaped table in Warsaw.

“All the people in this are professionals. They are not superficial. They know how long an insurgency will take,� said Abadi. “Go throughout the world. None has had lesser than eight years, most have had twelve and more.�

Remember that figure next time you read about Murtha’s or Kerry’s or Feinstein’s all-knowing descriptions of the strategy they would have us undertake were they to be in control of the decision-making in Washington. Eight years…as many as 12 years…these are big numbers for a 6 commercial breaks and show over mentality amongst the peacemakers of the American Liberal movement. We’ve been there 2 years too long according to some, should have never gone there at all according to others, and to the select few who would be our President, we should be gone in 2 months. Yet, by these professionals that do this for a living, we haven’t even gotten started yet. Who do we believe? Who’s advice do we follow?

I’m going with the military experts, thank you very much.

“But every time they come they see the successes that the Iraqis have undergone in their struggle. How they’re building their forces,� he continued. “From January till summer, from summer to now, everything is changing.�

And therein lies the victory for the coalition’s efforts in Iraq. Eighty-nine Iraqi Army battalions are in charge of their own battle space – on a map, a swath of perhaps three-quarters of the country – and that number will pass 100 by year’s end. Two Iraqi provinces fell under complete Iraqi control in the past three months — that number could double by January. The Iraqi chain of command is solidifying. The Iraqi security forces are growing. And the Baghdad Security Plan grinds on, neighborhood to neighborhood, house to house.

It should not be particularly controversial to suggest that there will be violence in Iraq — sectarian, insurgent, terrorist, criminal — long after there are annual Coalition Conferences to discuss it. Over the past year the war in Iraq has rapidly changed from a coalition war against that violence to a coalition support operation, to assist the Iraqi government in a war they will before too long be waging by themselves. Coalition experts help build capabilities — border-guard systems, logistical channels, governmental operations and reconstruction efforts. And while a functioning country is built, coalition forces provide overwatch. As Iraq moves toward a new future, the coalition is guarding the path.

While the campaign winds down, and the rhetoric heats up, pay close attention to this last passage. Remember, memorize, quote over and over to anyone who will listen to you, that simple sentence:

As Iraq moves toward a new future, the coalition is guarding the path.

And remember that Iraq’s success against the violence among them really does effect her neighbors and our friends, and ultimately makes all of us safer…regardless of your politics and regardless of who gets elected here at home, the fight there will continue. We owe them, our own soldiers, and the rest of the world a set of politicans who “get” that, and are strong enough to offer whatever American support is necessary for the Iraqis to win this thing.