The countdown is on. In little more than a week, the Coalition will turn sovereign powers back to the Iraqis.

The U.S. will open an embassy in Baghdad for the first time in years, and Iraq will begin its own diplomatic relationships with other nations for the first time since the man calling the shots was filling mass graves and locking children in prisons.

The bad guys, led in Iraq by Abu Zarqawi, are vowing to assassinate Iraq's new Prime Minister - Iyad Allawi - in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the country from being run in a peaceful, free and democratic way by its own people.

It'll be great for the Iraqis. It will be great for anyone who wants to see terrorists defeated. It might not be so hot for the defeatists, but it will be interesting to see what line of argument they adopt.

Let the countdown begin.