FALLUJAH, IRAQ — In 2004 and 2005, the Iraqi city of Fallujah was a killing field. Al Qaeda dominated the streets. Insurgent snipers sought to pick off U.S. Marines on patrol. Some of the fiercest fighting of the Iraqi insurgency was in this largely Sunni Arab city, just 40 miles west of Baghdad. Nor were other parts of Anbar province much better.

Ramadi, the provincial capital, also experienced prolonged fighting. Even after some Sunni sheikhs in the region agreed to work with the United States and the new Iraqi government against Al Qaeda, violence continued as improvised explosive devices, suicide bombers, and assassins continued to challenge American forces and terrorize local residents. Between 2003 and 2011, more than 1,300 Americans died in the Sunni Triangle and Euphrates Valley region.

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Today, Fallujah is far different. Just a few yards away the Euphrates River bridge from which, in 2004, insurgents hung the bodies of four Blackwater contractors whom a mob had beaten, burned, and dragged through the streets, a coffee shop sells smoothies and young families stroll along a palm-tree studded promenade.

The Fallujah market looks run down with wires hung haphazardly and goods blocking the sidewalk, but it is vibrant. Even in 120°F heat, residents peruse the shops, though many escape into restaurants the Iraqis of different sects and ethnicities come to patronize, not only from elsewhere in Anbar, but also from Baghdad and other nearby cities. Several of these restaurants have been so successful, they have opened branches in other cities. Some of the stores sell products in boxes designed with American flags. The city is also clean: Litter is minimal, especially compared to elsewhere in Iraq, perhaps because municipal trash trucks clear the garbage on schedule.

Nor is Fallujah alone. Anbar is now, after Iraqi Kurdistan, the second most prosperous region of Iraq; it has an advantage over Kurdistan in suffering far less corruption and no kleptocratic duopoly of ruling families. Ramadi boasts new hospitals, universities, and its own airport is on the horizon. Roads are well paved. While Iranian pressure on Baghdad continues to deny Anbar the full benefits of its highway to Amman, Jordan, Ramadi is nonetheless booming, with warehouses belonging to different international companies full, just inside the city gates. I saw similar scenes driving through Habbaniyah and Alsufia. All along the highway and main roads, billboards and banners promoted candidates and slates in forthcoming elections. U.S. democracy promotion efforts worked in Iraq, albeit not on the timeline envisioned by President George W. Bush.

In Fallujah and Ramadi, locals had one message: Americans are now welcome. People in no-go areas of the past gave me a thumbs up when they asked and I told them where I was from. Part of this is due to the passage of time — more than half of all Iraqis were born after 2003 — and part is subsequent experience with the Islamic State and American efforts to re-liberate the land. Local leaders said they would especially welcome back U.S. Marines. It was the Marines, after all, who made alliances with local leaders to work with them in smashing al Qaeda and bringing order to chaos.

Many American servicemen visited Vietnam decades after to remember fallen colleagues, see developments in the country, and even meet those whom they once fought. Many veterans found such experiences therapeutic. There’s a lesson here. Too many Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans question why they fought while many in Congress see Iraq through the lens of 2005 rather than 2025. Returning to Iraq — there is no need for security to travel from Baghdad to Fallujah or Ramadi — could recalibrate perceptions to reality, and cement bonds of brotherhood between those who departed the conflict in bitterness.

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Indeed, Vietnam is not the best analogy for Iraq; South Korea is. The investment there was far higher than President Harry S. Truman expected and the press pilloried him for seeking to implant democracy on a culture, they said, which was impervious to it. South Korea’s evolution to democracy was far from smooth, but juxtaposition with North Korea shows the price was worth it.

The energy Iraq effuses today — from Kurdistan to Baghdad to Anbar — is infectious. American politicos may self-flagellate for the U.S. role in Iraq’s liberation but life in Anbar tells a different story. The Americans who sacrificed so much to make this possible should come back and bear witness.

Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is director of analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.