It's Morning In Iraq

Looks like we're not nearly as unpopular in the land of the Chaldeans as the extreme Left and its media arm would have us believe....

An ABC News poll in Iraq, conducted with Time magazine and other media partners, includes some remarkable results: Despite the daily violence there, most living conditions are rated positively, seven in 10 Iraqis say their own lives are going well, and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve in the year ahead.

Surprisingly, given the insurgents' attacks on Iraqi civilians, more than six in 10 Iraqis feel very safe in their own neighborhoods, up sharply from just 40% in a poll in June 2004. And 61 % say local security is good — up from 49% in the first ABC News poll in Iraq in February 2004.

Nonetheless, nationally, security is seen as the most pressing problem by far; 57% identify it as the country's top priority. Economic improvements are helping the public mood.

Average household incomes have soared by 60% in the last 20 months (to $263 a month), 70% of Iraqis rate their own economic situation positively, and consumer goods are sweeping the country. In early 2004, 6% of Iraqi households had cell phones; now it's 62%. Ownership of satellite dishes has nearly tripled, and many more families now own air conditioners (58%, up from 44%), cars, washing machines and kitchen appliances.

There are positive political signs as well. Three-quarters of Iraqis express confidence in the national elections being held this week, 70% approve of the new constitution, and 70% — including most people in Sunni and Shiite areas alike — want Iraq to remain a unified country. ... Preference for a democratic political structure has advanced, to 57% of Iraqis, while support for an Islamic state has lost ground, to 14% (the rest, 26%, chiefly in Sunni Arab areas, favor a "single strong leader.")

Sure, they want us to leave - what people would enjoy being under foreign occupation, no matter how benign? - but not before their country is secure and they can competently and adequately defend themselves. And now that they've had a taste of freedom and democracy, they won't be going back.

This is what victory looks like, no matter what jihadi-symps like Jack Murtha ("I've finally come to the conclusion that we're the enemy....") dishonestly insist, and what will inexorably discredit them in the weeks and months ahead.

And the Dems are basing their whole '06 strategy on a "rising tide of anti-war sentiment," eh?

If it's, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me," one can only imagine what the trifecta will look like.

Maybe Howard Dean's head will finally explode.