and this election -- if you compare us to before the troop withdrawal, the participation is high. everyone's keen for parliament to be the only place for resolving the political differences. so in that sense, i think we are in the right trend. we are cementing a new culture of democracy in iraq. >> you wrote when you wrote in the "boston herald" recently. one of the things you said was on the security front, iraq needs american equipment and expertise as well as strategic coordination and intelligence cooperation. what does that entail? and do you have any sign from the obama administration that it will be forthcoming? >> the administration has been very supportive. it has been understanding the challenge we have, the scale, the depth of the challenge. we are new in developing our own infrastructure and creating the security and military infrastructure. the u.s. troop, when they left, a lot of expertise left with them. we have new challenges. we also have a new situation in