THIS SEEMS LIKE GOOD NEWS:

The celebrations that followed such attacks in the early days of the occupation are becoming more rare, several residents said, and martyrdom no longer seems noble when it means upturning the lives of ordinary Iraqis.

“I’m against the resistance now, and I’m not afraid to say it,” said Mahmoud Ali, 25, who was tending a roadside soda stand. “I can bring you a dozen friends who say the same thing. I wish the attacks would stop. It’s affecting our whole stability, our whole life.”

It’s the “not afraid to say it” that’s probably the biggest indicator here.