what the mood of the average Iraqi person is towards a chance at democracy?
Well, I haven't met one of the several dozen I've had an opportunity to converse with, who believe that their government leaders shouldn't be accountable to them.
The real problem, as many of us have been discussing for months now, is that moderate and peaceful people are generally the last to use violence to get their way.
Unfortunately, there are whole groups of people who believe violence is the only way in which they can obtain, at the expense of others, what they perceive as their own rights.
The Ba'athist political and social infrastructure is well-rooted in Iraq.. They've had decades to create multiple levels of political and military control. And because the Ba'athists are mainly Sunni, and the Sunnis are not only the minority, but control relatively few areas of economic wealth (oil), it can be easy to persuade their associates that this is a zero-sum game and that the US is on the side of the Iranian backed Shiites.
But the general mood, when people are able to speak calmly and rationally, and not be intimidated by either side, is that they want peace and to just live their lives with as little government intervention as possible.
Kinda like us..
Hawk |
