Why can't Iraqis be proud of being Iraqi?

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/016562.php

Interesting post over at Jihadwatch. Robert Spencer seems to believe that all Moslems everywhere are Moslems first, and Iraqi's or Egyptians or Jordanians second. There is a lot anecdotal evidence coming out of Iraq that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's are nationalists and tribe members first, Moslems second. These guys are currently fighting Al-Qaeda, militias and criminals at great personal risk right now, side by side with the Americans. Not only does the war not have the same components as Vietnam (mainly a Nationalist struggle first against the French then the Americans), it is at a very different stage. There is a strong possibility that if Iran was not working very hard behind the scenes to keep the various insurgencies and criminalities stoked, many of them would have been neutralised or just dried up and blown away by now. Thats the opposite of a Nationalist struggle- thats the undermining of a sovereign nation by a neighbor. I have a feeling that this truth is gradually seeping into the mix in Iraq- undermining both the Sunni insurgency and the Shia militias claims to be Iraqi patriots. Iraqi nationalism is still a relatively new and untested phenomenon, mainly because Iraq is a new country.

So I have to say I disagree with Robert Spencer. Iraqi's seem to like the idea of Iraq more than many people in the West and in the Middle East thought. If Gen Petraeus can keep moving in the direction he is, splitting the Sunni's from Al-Qaeda, and destroying the military capability of the Mahdi Army and Badr Brigades, a time will soon come when the only people fighting in Iraq will be a tiny Al-Qaeda rump and a few Iranian proxies. Your average Joe in Iraq will be presented with a new order, a secular and relatively peaceful Iraq. At that point both Iraq and America will have 'won'. I believe that this may be as close as a year away.