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Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Whence the optimism? 

These numbers are about three and a half months old by now, but they are the most recent in the series - the International Republican institute has been polling Iraqi for over a year now, and the April numbers are quite illuminating.

Is Iraq moving in the right or wrong direction?

67 per cent say right (up from 54 per cent in May/June 2004)
20 per cent say wrong (down from 39 per cent)
12 per cent don'’t know (up from 9 per cent)

How do you think your life will be one year from now?

82 per cent say better (up from 65 per cent)
2 per cent say worse (down from 15 per cent)
2 per cent say the same (down from 12 per cent)

Percentage of the population in the Sunni areas who think Iraq is moving in the right direction:

40 per cent (up from 33 in May/June 2004, and up from 15 per cent in December 2004/Januray 2005)

Welcome to the quagmire. It's not that the Iraqis are not concerned about the violence (they are) or angry about the level of services (they definitely are), yet the optimism about the future seems to be on the way up.

(hat tip: Judith Klinghoffer)

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