Andrew Sullivan has published a letter from a South African reader, comparing the difficulties we’ve experienced to those in Iraq.

I’m not fond on the comparison on purely pragmatic grounds. With all the bad press that Iraq is getting, the last thing we want is for people to start likening Iraq to South Africa. Still, I can understand the basic point that all recently-liberated countries have teething problems, and ultimately, Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein, just as South Africa is better off without apartheid.