It's Either Wonderful or Horrible?

Boy, I'm glad we have those unsigned Washington Post editorials to explain these things to us.

THE FIRST month of sovereign government in Iraq ended badly. A national conference that was to choose a 100-member assembly to function alongside the interim government was postponed for two weeks because key factions refused to participate. A car bombing that killed 70 people and a rash of kidnappings, meanwhile, underlined the fact that security remains a crippling problem. Those in Washington who believe that Iraq is headed for disaster will find confirmation in these events, and they may be proven right. Yet woven through the broader record of the past 30 days are signs that the formal end of the U.S. occupation may have advanced Iraq closer to the goal of stability under a representative government.

Cause for hope? Cause for despair? Cause for both? According to the Post, it seems the answer to all three questions is either "yes" or "who knows?"