KEN JOSEPH, the Assyrian peace activist who went to Iraq before the war and then left when he realized what Saddam was all about, has returned to Iraq and offers a distinctly positive view of the situation there:
The answer is very complicated while at the same time very, very simple. It is the “politically correct” thing to do to complain about the Americans, say they are not wanted and tell them to “go home.”
The reality, though, is very different.
As usually happens throughout Iraq, people look around before they tell their true feelings. Simply put they are still afraid to speak the truth. Before it was Saddam, now it is the Shiites and others who frighten them.
“The Americans are doing wonderfully. We want them to stay forever,” I hear.
I am not surprised. It is exactly like I thought. When I was in Iraq before the war, the reported feelings were that while the people of Iraq did not like Saddam, they would fight for their country and were against the war.
As I said then, the people wanted the war to come so they could be liberated from Saddam but were not free to talk. The same situation with a different twist exists today.
It is not widely reported, nor fashionable to say the Americans are loved and wanted in Iraq, but in fact as they were wanted before the war, they are wanted now.
“We hope they stay forever” is the true feeling of the silent majority in Iraq, contrary to what is reported.
The logic is very simple — the Iraqis do not trust their leaders. Faced with a very complicated situation of a 60 percent Shiite majority, a former police state, Iran at their doorstep trying with all its might to destabilize their country, and desperately relieved and happy to be finally liberated from nearly 30 years of Saddam, they want the United States to stay.
They’re afraid that if we leave, the “crazies” will take over, as in Iran. Read the whole thing, as they say. This suggests to me that one of the most important things we can do is make clear that we won’t be chased out, a la Somalia.
UPDATE: Virginia Postrel doesn’t think this is a positive account. I disagree. The story we’re hearing is that Iraqis hate us, and crazy Shiite clerics are in charge. This says Iraqis don’t hate us, and crazy Shiite clerics are having to threaten people to get any traction. That seems better than the conventional wisdom to me.
Virginia seems a bit miffed about Tim Blair’s New York Times jokes, too. But if the Times had more writers like Virginia, people wouldn’t be joking.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s why people are all over the Times, Virginia. And, sadly, lots of other places are just as bad. Reporting may be hard — but lying is easy. Guess which one they choose, sometimes.