Some Polling Numbers You May Not Have Heard
Most of the media talking heads seem to find great significance in Bush’s falling approval ratings…numbers that pale in significance next to some polling data we’ve heard next to nothing about, but of far greater importance:
A recent survey by the Iraqi Center for Development and International Dialogue found 79 percent of Iraqis favor the draft constitution while only 8 percent opposed it.
“The part that surprised me,” pollster Mehdi Hafedh told Reuters, “was the percentage of supporters for the referendum. I didn’t expect that.”
Even in the Sunni heartland that serves as a base for the violent counterinsurgency, support for the document exceeded 50 percent.
I am reminded of all the naysaying the preceded the Iraqi elections this past January…and of how well the outcome turned out. This is a reason for hope and optimism of a longer lasting variety than a bump in Presidential favorability ratings.
Iraq Heading To Constitutional Win
It is hard not to be bully on Iraq. Those people suffered through 30 years of terrible oppression, torture and mass graves. And after we liberated them, they have had to deal with blood thirsty Al Qaeda terrorists who make Saddam look normal. And t…
This seems like a good post to make a comment which has been running through my head for quite a while now. The anti-war left and the hypercritical elements of the democratic party seem only to talk about military successes to measure our progress in the war (or, more precisely, our lack of military successes). Thinking back and examining the works of every great thinker on the subject of war, one comes to the conclusion that the critics are using the wrong metrics. Every great thinker, from every culture, every religious tradition and every historical epoch (thinking here of Thucydies, Sun Tsu, Machivelli and Clauswitz) has come to one similar and undeniable conclusion on the subject of war–that is that war is a political act. Hell, Clauswitz said that war is “politics by other means”. From that simple fact, one can infer that just as wars are started since the normal methods of politics were insufficient for a redress of greviences, wars end when political processes once again gain the power to settle disputes and mediate between aggrevied parties.
That is the stage we are rapidly approaching in Iraq. Problems which were once settled in a rape room or through the barrel of a gun are now finding redress at the ballot box. The simple fact that the debate over the Constitution is whether it will recieve enough support, as opposed to whether people will actually trust in the political process enough to vote, marks a substantial victory in Iraq.
Just as wars are caused to start by a political catalyst, their final resolution has to be a political solution. To me, it seems, that is the stage we have entered into in Iraq.
Colin, well said. The debates taking place in Iraq now were unimaginable under the despotism of Saddam…and that’s rather the whole point, a point that, as you say, has been buried under casualty figures for quite some time now…
Another item from the Middle East no one may have heard much about was the Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan’s suicide. Now, in the Middle East everything is political and while this looks like a genuine suicide, or at least a forced suicide, its political repercussions will still reverberate throughout Lebanon, Iran, Syria and Iraq. Apparently, the reason behind his suicide was that he was going to be held accountable for his actions while in office! In the Middle East! Will wonders never cease?
I’ve also heard rumors that he was a very important player in the region’s drug, terrorist, money and arms networks. And, in addition, Syrian may now use him as a fall guy for all sorts of other activities, like high level corruption, running assassination squads and concealing WMDs from Iraq. The next week or two should see some very interesting developments.
Fred, yes, I read that story with much interest – very intriguing, to say the least (not to celebrate the suicide of anyone – just the whole backstory, I mean)…
[...] I’m predicting a smashing success for the Iraqi referendum. [...]