The Tide Is Turning

The evidence of coalition successes in Iraq is slowly tarting to come forward, and the tide is turning. Dr. Bob Arnot was just on the Imus show on MSNBC (and for the record, Arnot has been, hands down, the best reporter in theatre since day one- I imagine David Bloom would still be doing a bang up job, but that was not to be) discussing the bombing of the NBC headquarters, and he stated (and I must paraphrase):

We can’t let these incidents distract us from what is really going on in Iraq. Al over the country, hospitals are up and running, schools are running, businesses are being built and rebuilt, and over 8000 reconstruction projects have been completed.

[snark] Eight thousand reconstruction projects have been completed? Wow- maybe the Democrats are right- can you imagine what we would have done if we just had a ‘plan?’ [/snark]

Arnot then continued on to note the latest Gallup poll, in which 62% of the population said they would go through everything again and 67% said that Iraq will be a much better place in five years. Some more information from the just released Gallup Poll:

The initial wave of findings that were released today show:

— Nearly two-thirds (62%) of Baghdad’s citizens think ousting Saddam Hussein was worth any hardships they have personally endured since the invasion.

— Nearly half (47%) thinks the country as a whole is currently worse off than it was before the invasion – only a third (33%) thinks it is already in better shape.

— Two-thirds (67%) believe Iraq will be in better condition five years from now than it was before the U.S. and British-led invasion; just 8% think it will be worse off.

— Most (61%) take a favorable view of the new Iraqi Governing Council, but see its policies and decisions “still mostly determined by the coalition’s own authorities” (75%).

— Fully half (50%) think that the Coalition Provisional Authority is doing a better job now than was the case two months ago, while just 14% think it is doing a worse job.

“Despite – or more likely because of – all they have been through, residents of Baghdad were exceptionally eager to speak with our interviewers. More than 97% of those we contacted in our strict, probability-based sample agreed to be interviewed in the privacy of their own homes,” said Burkholder. “The survey’s results – and the insights they give us about how both the past and the future look to the people of Iraq’s capital city – are priceless.”

That, folks, is progress, and not merely Roveian spin from the evil triumverate of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld. Add to that the observations from American Congressman, and we are starting to see a different picture emerge from the previous doom and gloom/ quagmire casserole that all the previous reporting seemed to present. Here is an excerpt from an interview with Brit Hume and Rep. Jim Marshall (D- GA):

HUME: Isn’t there a different, though, really in what you see at home? If you and I hear a story about murder and rape or outbreak of violence in some American city, we kind of know because we live here what that is. And we fit it into a certain perspective. But we don’t really have perspective or context on Iraq, do we?

MARSHALL: Well, that’s an interesting observation. What I’d say is that you if you take news media at home and you