But there is also frustration that promised improvements in public services have not followed.
The United Nations said in February that 40 percent of Iraq's 27 million people have no safe water. Despite vast oil wealth, which should fuel economic growth of 7 percent this year, the U.N. has appealed for $265 million in aid for Iraq to address food, shelter, water and sanitation deficiencies.
Rivers of fluorescent green waste buzzing with flies run down the centre of Fadhil's dirt streets. The tightly packed, low-slung houses are riddled with bullet holes: some are completely blown apart by rockets or explosives.
"The sewage system just broke again and the water is no good," says Um Sara, a 31-year old mother of three, who throws up her arms in frustration as she leans out her doorway in a brightly coloured flowery dress.
Jalal Salah, owner of a tiny grocery on nearby al-Kifah street, complains that he has not had power since 2006 and must rely on private generators: "They keep promising to address this and nothing happens."
Things are happening -- just not as fast as some of Baghdad's citizens had hoped.
At a district council meeting last Thursday, a group of two dozen neighbourhood representatives discussed plans to add 370 public workers and provide $3 million in equipment -- including computers, trucks, radios and bulldozers.
If the proposal is accepted, U.S. government money would fund the first three months of the project, with the Iraqi government taking over after that.
Major John Schulz, a U.S. civil affairs officer, said in the past, local leaders struggled to get their needs addressed and funded by the government.
"We're focusing on certain neighbourhoods that the government higher up has ignored," he said. "You may have a situation where the guy at the power switching station doesn't like a neighbourhood so they simply don't get power."
One recent project was to spruce up al-Sibaa square on what U.S. forces describe as a "fault line" between the Sunni enclave of Fadhil and heavily Shi'ite neighbourhoods to the west.
With sectarian violence raging, the square had become an ugly dumping ground for trash and a hang-out for alcoholics.
Now a gleaming white fountain, mounted on lion statues, sits in the middle and boys kick a soccer ball around, giving the square an oddly sanitised look in an area scarred by fighting and poverty.
"We're making progress but it will take time," says Schulz. "The hope is that we can help make this a better country, but it may take 10 to 20 years."
