| Our Opinion - Reality in Iraq Over in the Letters section today is one from Private Matison crown, a U.S. Army paratrooper now serving in Iraq. We don't know where Private Brown is from, specifically, which violates one of our letter-acceptance rules. It also violates, we think, another rule, which is that we don't normally publish letters from writers who live outside our circulation area. We made the exception for Private Brown for a couple of reasons, one of them having to do with a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece in that paper Wednesday. The piece, "What Iraqis Really Think," was written by Karl Zinsmeister, editor in chief of The American Enterprise Institute, and had to do with a poll recently completed by the Institute in cooperation with Zogby International survey researchers. Completed in August, it is the first scientific poll of the Iraqi public, and it puts the lie to most of the news coverage of the war. That coverage, you'll no doubt have noticed, paints an unremittingly bleak picture of how we're doing in Iraq. Mr. Zinsmeister says as much in introducing the results of the poll. "We've all been at the mercy of images presented to us by the press," he notes. "We all know that journalists have a bad-news bias: 10,000 schools being rehabbed isn't news; one school blowing up is a weeklong feeding frenzy." He's right. When's the last time you saw a story on TV or read one in a newspaper that presents anything but a doomsday view of how our troops are doing and what the Iraqis think of us? Can't remember, can you? Anyway, the poll, which Zinsmeister says was, although "limited in scope ... reflects a nationally representative sample of Iraqi views, as captured in four disparate cities." Among those cities was Kirkuk, where Private Brown is stationed. Among the poll's findings? Seven of 10 Iraqis say they expect their country and their personal lives will be better five years from now, and 32 percent say they will become much better. Asked to name one country they would most like Iraq to models its new government on (they were given five options: Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, or the U.S.), 37 percent chose ... yep, the United States. Saudi Arabia was second at 28 percent. Some 57 percent of Iraqis have an unfavorable of Osama bin Laden ... 41 percent say very unfavorable. And finally, they were asked how long they would like to see American and British forces remain in their country (remember, the national news media harps constantly that the Iraqis want us out immediately). The answer? Two thirds urged that the coalition troops should stick around for at least another year. All of this, of course, confirms what our paratrooper has to say, that the Iraqis are generally friendly and thankful for the military's presence, treat them warmly, and are more than a little grateful to have seen the end of the Saddam regime. Given the poll's results, one would think that those from the Left who have been so venomously critical of the United States effort — we include most of the press who covered and are covering the news in Iraq — would start trying to bring at least a semblance of balance to what Americans are hearing, seeing and reading. But, obviously, their aim is not to provide balance and a fair picture, but to attack President Bush's anti-terrorist actions and policies in the hope that by November of 2004 a majority of voters will opt for change. Somehow, we have the feeling that a bunch of those voters — Private Brown and his fellow soldiers among them — will choose to stay the course. That's because what they see and understand about Iraq hasn't first passed through the media's anti-liberty filter. (9/14/2003)
- By Steve Williams, Desert Dispatch, Victorville Daily Press | 
