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Iraqis Showing Hope By “Voting With Their Feet”

by

Here is an incredible column about the real story in Iraq by the very smart and well-traveled Amir Taheri.  Yeah, there is actually good news coming from Iraq.  Too bad our news media are too lazy, biased and scared to report it. (h/t – Lorie Byrd at Wizbang)

For someone like myself who has spent considerable time in Iraq—a country I first visited in 1968—current reality there is, nevertheless, very different from this conventional wisdom, and so are the prospects for Iraq’s future. It helps to know where to look, what sources to trust, and how to evaluate the present moment against the background of Iraqi and Middle Eastern history.

Since my first encounter with Iraq almost 40 years ago, I have relied on several broad measures of social and economic health to assess the country’s condition. Through good times and bad, these signs have proved remarkably accurate—as accurate, that is, as is possible in human affairs. For some time now, all have been pointing in an unequivocally positive direction.

The first sign is refugees. When things have been truly desperate in Iraq—in 1959, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1980, 1988, and 1990—long queues of Iraqis have formed at the Turkish and Iranian frontiers, hoping to escape. In 1973, for example, when Saddam Hussein decided to expel all those whose ancestors had not been Ottoman citizens before Iraq’s creation as a state, some 1.2 million Iraqis left their homes in the space of just six weeks.

Since the toppling of Saddam in 2003, this is one highly damaging image we have not seen on our television sets—and we can be sure that we would be seeing it if it were there to be shown. To the contrary, 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.

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 Iraq or abroad, prepared to express an opinion on anything remotely political. This is what Makiya meant when he described Saddam Hussein’s regime as a “republic of fear.”

 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, 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 Iraq, including over 100 privately-owned newspapers and magazines and more than two dozen radio and television stations. To anyone familiar with the state of the media in the Arab world, it is a truism that Iraq today is the place where freedom of expression is most effectively exercise.

It is truly remarkable that we are not hearing these stories from the mainstream media.  Taheri is correct in his assessment:

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 Iraq enterprise to end in tragedy, as a just comeuppance for George W. Bush. Others, prompted by noble sentiment, so abhor the idea of war that they would banish it from human discourse before admitting that, in some circumstances, military power can be used in support of a good cause. But whatever the reason, the half-truths and outright misinformation that now function as conventional wisdom have gravely disserved the American people.

Put Taheri on your “must read” list of any thing related to the actual news coming out of Iraq.  He knows a lot more than Katie Couric, John Stewart & John Kerry. (Listed in increasing irrelevancy to the truth.)

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Comments

  2. Speaking of “misinformation”, isn’t Amir Taheri the guy who spread the false story about the Iranian law that would supposedly have forced Jews to wear a yellow cloth identifier? The conservative newspaper that published the article eventually apologized with this to say:

    “It is now clear the story is not true,” Douglas Kelly, the National Post’s editor in chief, wrote in a long editorial on Page 2. “We apologize for the mistake and for the consternation it has caused not just National Post readers, but the broader public who read the story.”

    http://tinyurl.com/rg5zc

    Mr. Taheri conveniently ignores what appears to be happening today:

    “A few months after reports indicated that Iraqi university professors and academics were fleeing the country because of violence and kidnappings, new media reports say that the middle class in Iraq also wants to leave.”

    http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0522/dailyUpdate.html

    Mr. Taheri is not to be trusted for information on the Middle East.

  3. 2. Ian – yes taheri is that guy. He was a big shot under the Shah and has made a living pushing pro western conpsiracy theories to gullible conservatives. benador associates, whom he is a member of, is a group of mutants that include hate radio war monger dennis prager and rubber room resident “saddam did ohklahoma city”Laurie Mylroie. They are like the monsters the superfriends used to battle on saturday morning.

  4. Its not the influx of Iraqis that is important, its how many have stayed, and how many have left that is more telling. It seems to me you need to look at the net population figures in order to support what he is claiming. If that holds up, fine, but otherwise what he is saying can’t be proven.

  5. That anyone would consider the media to be too scared to run a story about this “good news,” is, frankly, beyond belief. The mainstream media has proven to have absolutely no spine at all when it comes to posting any sort of news that might (just might!) shine poorly on this megalomaniac president and his frightening constituency. How long did it take them to actually let someone say this President’s wiretapping was illegal?

    This is the “liberal media” who gave Ronald Reagan a two week funeral, mind you.

    Go ahead and focus on the supposed good news coming from Iraq. I’ll continue pointing at the “Mission Accomplished” banner over the collection of thousands of dead Iraqis and American soldiers. This war was about keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of a bad guy who could, apparently, destroy us and our allies. Remember? Do you? We needed unfettered access. We needed weapons silos. But when we couldn’t get any of that, Bush made up an excuse. Suddenly the whole war is about making life better for the Iraqi people.

    I’m really, really happy that life is (possibly) getting better for the Iraqi public. That end does NOT justify Bush’s means.

  6. Nor do your ends justify your means, Stephen.

    I have in mind here, as your means, the way you lie about and distort the Iraq issue.

    (As we have seen in this blog above and, um, “before”, let’s say. Still working on that bizarre theory of yours, Stephen, that Saddam’s Iraq somehow hadn’t lost its sovereignty – despite 12 years of U.N. resolutions proclaiming otherwise?)

  8. #2 Ian S — June 6, 2006 @ 1:22 pm – June 6, 2006

    Speaking of “misinformation”, isn’t Amir Taheri the guy who spread the false story about the Iranian law that would supposedly have forced Jews to wear a yellow cloth identifier?

    Yes, and it is amusing to see that Commentary Magazine, the spawn of the brain-dead Norman Podhoretz and his equally brain-dead wife Midge Dector (parents of the also brain-dead John Podhoretz, columnist for the NY Post) would publish a column by an obvious liar.

    It has been reported here in German-language media that on the order of 25% of the Iraqi middle class has left Iraq, or is in the process of leaving Iraq. Thank you, George W Bush. It was also reported that the refugees hope someday to return, but the history of refugees returning to their homeland suggests that few will actually return.

  10. umm, Calarato –a correction from my perspective: GrampaGryph rings the bell on both topics.

    I love the GayLeft writers here who demand retractions when they think someone misstates a fact in making a point… but then never reverse themselves when called to account (as we’ve both done with Gramps and raj and Ian and others) by others.

    Old liberal traits of “Do as I say; not as I do”.

    And usually they point out: “I never read ________’s comments”. Right.

  11. raj baby writes: “It has been reported here in German-language media that on the order of 25% of the Iraqi middle class has left Iraq, or is in the process of leaving Iraq. Thank you, George W Bush.”

    Of course, like most GayLefties, raj takes that “reported fact” as real without any thoughtful consideration. “It’s in print; it must be true!”

    Actually, raj baby, that political-observation-turned-reported-fact comes from work done by the CSMonitor and NYTimes… imagine that? It stems from two (2) indices that are hardly indices of anything other a statistic… namely, (1) that the Iraqi Ministry of Education is processing waivers for Iraqi students to study abroad at a rate higher than last year –the first year the waivers were required.

    Hmmm. More people wanting their kids to study outside of Iraq could ONLY MEAN that the middle class is fleeing Iraq given the violence spawned and instability, right?

    Bzzzzt. Wrong. It could also be that travel and student study abroad had been restricted under Saddam and there’s pent-up interest. Could it be that study abroad means going to better middle eastern schools in Jordan and Syria and France (oops, France isn’t officially a Middle Eastern country… yet)?

    Yes, it could also mean that parents want their kids safe from harm. But is that proof the “middle class is fleeing Iraq” and all is failure?

    (2) The CSMonitor and NYTimes work also indicates that passport issuances are up. Guess what? This is the 2nd year of passport issuances –it should be up given that Iraqis use their passport like Americans use their drivers’ license… it’s the primary form of identification in Iraqi. Of the 26+m Iraqi in Iraq and the 3.6-7.1m+ Iraqi nationals living outside of Iraq, to have about 7% of the population get their official ID in the second year of issuance seems pretty reasonable to me.

    Oh, the CSMonitor and NYTimes didn’t share that “fact” with those astute German reporters commenting and observing in “German language media”? Wow, imagine that? Maybe that’s why the Right and most Americans see the media as liberally biased. Nawh.

    Finally, if there’s anything worthy of reporting is that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees recently offered that they’ll be closing down their refugee operations for Iraqis because “the crisis has passed and citizens have returned home.” Go figure? Guess what, the UN High Commissioner is taking all the refugee supplies not pilfered while stationed in Syria and Jordan and Turkey and is giving them to inner-city Iraqi children centers.

    Raj baby, you gotta get beyond the headlines. Basing any opinion on headlines –even if it’s in German—is a sloppy practice

  12. If more Iraqis wanted to travel or study abroad – some lefty would try to use it as “proof” that Iraq was better under Saddam.

    And if LESS Iraqis wanted to travel or study abroad – some lefty would try to use it as “proof” that Iraq was better under Saddam.

    Bottom line: support Saddam, blame America first. To some people, facts and logic don’t matter at all; they’re mere rhetorical playthings to be manipulated for the Party’s goals.

  14. #11 Michigan-Matt — June 7, 2006 @ 9:55 am – June 7, 2006

    Oh, my goodness, so the Ami media has deigned to actually provide you with similar information that is available to us over here in Europe. I’m surprised.

    On the other hand, it is far from clear what your point about Iraqi passport issuances has to do with anything. The point, which you apparently wanted to divert attention from, is that more than a bit of the Iraqi middle class has left or is in the process of leaving.

    Thank you, George W Bush.

    The issue regarding the passport issuances and Calorato’s point about “studying abroad” are nothing more than NDXXX’s time-honored “straw man” and “change the subject.” He’s better at it than y’all are. But not by much.