Like it or not, part of it is screwing up on part of what happened in Iraq. Sad to say, but Saddam did a better job of giving them electricity and water then we did, and they got pissed like hell at us because we were a step down. The election here wasn't lost at all because the Dems did anything right, it was lost because GOP did stuff wrong. So right now, unless someone gets some accomplishments that can be pointed to, the only real chance for a change coming up is for the Dems to screw up just as bad, or to pull some new Reagen out of nowhere and run 'em. Otherwise, might be looking at them pulling the White House in 2008. Need to worry less about what the blue is doing, and worry more about what the red is doing. They don't have a platform, but they're not accountable to the people since they're now in power. Reps are in most voters minds, and that's what made it turn out this way. We had aountability, they didn't, so we take the flak for the scandals, for Iraq, for everything that gets put out there.
You are completely wrong about electricity and water. One of the first things the US Army did when we got to Baghdad was to start re-storing infrastructure. But the f'n Baathists would blow up the sub-stations and lift stations as fast as we could rebuild them. We had to post security around all of them, which was a huge drain on manpower, assets that could have been put to much better use like killing the Baathists and Fedayeen.
You want accomplishments? Look at this. Before the US got to Iraq, the Iraqi people had no say whatsoever in the governing of their country. Now they vote:
Or this. It's called a hospital. When we got to Baghdad, less that 10% of hospitals were operational. After a year, nearly 100% were.
Or this. It's called a school. When we got to Baghdad, many children had not attended one in over two years. Some had never attended one. A year later, kids were going back to school in droves and getting an education. Education is the key, not bullets, to stopping the spread of Islamofascism, every educated Iraqi told me this. Iraq was 78% illiterate when we got there.
Could we have done some things better? Of course. I challenge you to name one war where we or anyone else did everything right. But don't tell me we had no accomplishments. After two tours over there, the place was like night and day when I left the second time compared to when I got there the first time.