Ask Those to Whom it Matters

From Investors Business Daily:

Posted 12/12/2005
The Mideast: In the third of four speeches he is giving on Iraq, President Bush urged Iraqis on Monday to push forward with their democracy. Meanwhile, a new poll shows they're doing just that.

"There's still a lot of difficult work to be done in Iraq," Bush said in Philadelphia. "But thanks to the courage of the Iraqi people, the year 2005 will be recorded as a turning point in the history of Iraq, the history of the Middle East and the history of freedom."

To the war's foes, that might sound like boilerplate, end-of-Vietnam rhetoric. But to Iraqis, it's increasingly sounding like a prophecy about to come true.

That's what comes through in a poll of average Iraqis by Oxford Research International. It found Iraqis remain optimistic about their future in a democratic Iraq — even as U.S. opponents of the war get more shrill and less rational about how it'll all come out.



Seventy percent of Iraqis agree that things in their lives are "very good" or "quite good," the poll shows. And 60% say they feel safe in their own neighborhoods — up from 40% in June 2004. Fully 69% say things will get better over the next year, and 75% are confident about this week's elections.

Confidence in the Iraqi army and police — once criticized for their inability to stop violence — now outstrips confidence in all other sectors of Iraqi life.

Down the line, Iraqis appear to be increasingly optimistic — about their own future and that of their country. Sound like a country on the ropes?

Yes, some findings in the poll can be viewed with concern. Most Iraqis, for instance, would like U.S. troops to leave, though not before a stable and democratic government is in place. And most now oppose the U.S.-led war.

This is understandable. But remember: Many average Germans and Japanese opposed U.S. occupation of their countries after World War II as unneeded intrusions in their nationhood.

Both went on to become prosperous, healthy democracies — so democratic, in fact, that Germany today is a consistent diplomatic opponent of the U.S. We might not like it, but that's democracy. It's what we wanted then, and it's what we want now for Iraq.

It makes us wonder how Rep. John Murtha can say the U.S. has "become the enemy." Or how 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry can accuse U.S. troops of "terrorizing" women and kids. Or how Democratic Party head Howard Dean can state flatly that the idea we can win in Iraq is "just plain wrong."

Such gloomy rhetoric, however mistaken, has affected public opinion in America, but luckily not in Iraq. As Iraq's elections kick off this week, we agree with President Bush that something remarkable and historic is taking place — something that might change public opinion here too.