Iraqis Optimistic
 

Iraqis Optimistic, Love America

September 10, 2003


I urge you to read Karl Zinsmeister's column on the Wall Street
Journal's website, OpinionJournal.com, headlined: "What Iraqis Really
Think - We Asked Them. What They Told Us Is Largely Reassuring."
Zinsmeister holds the J.B. Fuqua chair at the American Enterprise
Institute, and is the author of "Boots on the Ground: A Month With the
82nd Airborne in the Battle for Iraq." He surveyed the Iraqi people
with the Zogby polling people, and it's amazing how like America the
Iraqis want to be. This is the sort of stuff that's just not being
reported - or mentioned by any of the Democrats.



Zinsmeister: "The results show that the Iraqi public is more sensible,
stable and moderate than commonly portrayed, and that Iraq is not so
fanatical, or resentful of the U.S., after all. Iraqis are optimistic.
Seven out of 10 say they expect their country and their personal lives
will be better five years from now. On both fronts, 32% say things
will become much better. The toughest part of reconstructing their
nation, Iraqis say by 3 to 1, will be politics, not economics. They
are nervous about democracy. Asked which is closer to their own view -
'Democracy can work well in Iraq,' or 'Democracy is a Western way of
doing things' - five out of 10 said democracy is Western and won't
work in Iraq.

"One in 10 wasn't sure. And four out of 10 said democracy can work in
Iraq. There were interesting divergences. Sunnis were negative on
democracy by more than 2 to 1; but, critically, the majority Shiites
were as likely to say democracy would work for Iraqis as not. People
age 18-29 are much more rosy about democracy than other Iraqis, and
women are significantly more positive than men. Asked to name one
country they would most like Iraq to model its new government on from
five possibilities - neighboring, Baathist Syria; neighbor and Islamic
monarchy Saudi Arabia; neighbor and Islamist republic Iran; Arab
lodestar Egypt; or the U.S. - the most popular model by far was the
U.S."

Do you hear me, my friends? More: "Younger adults are especially
favorable toward the U.S., and Shiites are more admiring than Sunnis."
Of course we know that it's always young people who make things
happen. I'm getting to that age where I understand the phrase "youth
is wasted on the young." Zinsmeister closes by saying that none of
this means the rebuilding will be easy, and that 50%-to-36% said the
US would hurt Iraq over the next five years. Of course, they just
lived through a war where we had to drop a lot of ammo on them so this
is understandable.

The good news is, less than 30% knew or heard of anyone killed in the
spring fighting. Meanwhile, 50% had a family member, neighbor or
friend who had been killed by Saddam's thugs. What about Democrat
demands that we bring our troops home today? Well, the Iraqis
disagree. Fully two-thirds of those surveyed want coalition troops to
stay in their nation for at least another year. This survey is not all
rosy, but it shows far more reason for optimism in it than we are
hearing from any other source. It's truly uplifting in its
implications, and I'm happy to be able to pass it on.




Hero@Horvath.net

Ave Imperator Bush!
Bush Was Right! Four More Years!