Friday, May 19, 2006
Understanding Iraq
By now, Amir Taheri’s comprehensive assessment of
Taheri begins his report about the Real Iraq, describing the almost universal puzzlement of those who visit
Within hours of arriving here, as I can attest from a recent visit, one is confronted with an image of
Taheri recounts the many ways public opinion is molded by prominent (and often hysterical) reporting, and concludes:
it is no wonder the American public registers disillusion with
For many of us who criticize MSM reporting on
To make matters worse, many of the newsmen, pundits, and commentators on whom American viewers and readers rely to describe the situation have been contaminated by the increasing bitterness of American politics. Clearly there are those in the media and the think tanks who wish the
This misinformation grievously misinforms much public opinion about
Taheri suggests a multi-faceted and diverse range of criteria for what he considers a more accurate assessment of how things go in
Criteria: Refugees
The first sign is refugees. When things have been truly desperate in
Iraqis, far from fleeing, have been returning home. By the end of 2005, in the most conservative estimate, the number of returnees topped the 1.2-million mark. Many of the camps set up for fleeing Iraqis in
Criteria: Pilgrimage
A second dependable sign likewise concerns human movement, but of a different kind. This is the flow of religious pilgrims to the Shiite shrines in
Since Saddams fall, they have been flooded with visitors. In 2005, the holy sites received an estimated 12 million pilgrims, making them the most visited spots in the entire Muslim world, ahead of both
Criteria: Iraqi Dinar
In the final years of Saddam Husseins rule, the Iraqi dinar was in free fall; after 1995, it was no longer even traded in
Criteria: Small and Medium Sized Businesses
In the past, whenever things have gone downhill in Iraq, large numbers of such enterprises have simply closed down, with the country’s most capable entrepreneurs decamping to Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf states, Turkey, Iran, and even Europe and North America. Since liberation, however,
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, as well as numerous private studies, the Iraqi economy has been doing better than any other in the region. The country’s gross domestic product rose to almost $90 billion in 2004 (the latest year for which figures are available), more than double the output for 2003, and its real growth rate, as estimated by the IMF, was 52.3 per cent. In that same period, exports increased by more than $3 billion, while the inflation rate fell to 25.4 percent, down from 70 percent in 2002. The unemployment rate was halved, from 60 percent to 30 percent.
Criteria: Readiness to Talk to Outsiders
Finally, one of the surest indices of the health of Iraqi society has always been its readiness to talk to the outside world. Iraqis are a verbalizing people; when they fall silent, life is incontrovertibly becoming hard for them. There have been times, indeed, when one could find scarcely a single Iraqi, whether in
Today, again by way of dramatic contrast, Iraqis are voluble to a fault. Talk radio, television talk-shows, and Internet blogs are all the rage, while heated debate is the order of the day in shops, tea-houses, bazaars, mosques, offices, and private homes. A catharsis is how Luay Abdulilah, the Iraqi short-story writer and diarist, describes it. This is one way of taking revenge against decades of deadly silence. Moreover, a vast network of independent media has emerged in
Taheri expands on what these factors mean to him in the aggregate. If you don’t read the whole thing, don’t miss his conclusion:
But more sober observers should understand the real balance sheet in
The stakes, in short, could not be higher. This is all the more reason to celebrate, to build on, and to consolidate what has already been accomplished. Instead of railing against the Bush administration, Americas elites would do better, and incidentally display greater self-respect, to direct their wrath where it properly belongs: at those violent and unrestrained enemies of democracy in Iraq who are, in truth, the enemies of democracy in America as well, and of everything America has ever stood for.
Is
Democracy, in too many places in the world, is an experiment as yet not undertaken.
Dr. Sanity summarizes the Taheri report, and further touches on
These seem like pretty significant changes to me, but of course will hardly convince those who are determined to make
From the other side of the argument, note how the
Dr. Sanity also notes the seemingly intentional counter-report at the NY Times on the “mass Exodus” of middle class Iraqis from
Almost as if to deliberately counter Taheri's piece, there is an article in the NY Times today--with the melodramatic title "As Death Stalks Iraq, Middle Class Exodus Begins"(which sounds suspiciously like the headlines they use to talk about Detroit and other urban areas of the US)--except, as noted by Cori Dauber, what they are really reporting on is an exodus from Baghdad..not all of
However, the Times piece itself is a data point supportive of my own thesis--that the MSM is dedicated to putting the worse possible face on every current aspect of Iraqi society. Iraqis have reasons to be upset with the slow-moving pace of their new governemnt, and until that government coalesces and starts doing what it needs, it will disaffect many there. How is that different from any other free country, where citizens can leave when it is in their interest to do so? As I mentioned in the comment section to this post, the fact that the MSM and the left desperately want to believe Al Qaeda and chaos are winning is like a beacon of hope to the murderers and terrorists. They know they have lost militarily and politically; but they are hoping that their useful idiot brigade here in the
Rantingprofs, while not dismissing the NY Times article, agrees with Dr. Sanity that this report about Baghdadis leaving Baghdad is being used to generalize about Iraqis leaving Iraq, which is a pretty large stretch extrapolation-wise.
Also linked for commentary at Gateway Pundit, Mudville Gazette, Powerline, Austin Bay, Carol Platt Liebau.
Linked at: Basil's Blog, Cao's Blog, Jo's Cafe
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