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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (29336)	2/13/2004 7:11:20 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793761

InstaPundit - Winning the Islamic Culture War Trent Telenko sends, via e-mail, a link to this WaPo article, which is very much of interest. Key quote he pulls out: "Thousands of Iranians have visited the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala since the war ended. Many have expressed surprise at the respectful and helpful behavior of the U.S. soldiers they met along the way. Leila Araki, waiting in the back of a Renault sedan as her husband peddled shoes, recalled that her mother-in-law somehow lost her money on the road to Karbala. She said a U.S. soldier reached into his pocket and handed her taxi fare back to Najaf. "This is something quite contrary to what we have been told about Americans," aid Araki, 31, who was told of Americans flashing thumbs-up and saying, "Good, Iranians." "They were really surprised. I would never be this respected and well-treated even in my country, by my countrymen." America's best emissaries are often our soldiers, that's just a fact. Read the whole article. Of course in one sense I don't find it that surprising: the typical Iranian has a much more positive view of America and Americans than their government would like us to believe. . .than their government would want them to have. But people thought that the presence of American soldiers in Shiite Holy Cities would piss them off. Well, that's another bit of pre-war intelligence that didn't turn out to be true, isn't it? Quite a few folks who were skeptics of the war to remove Saddam said it would alienate Iranians and possibly even make them more supportive of their Muhllacracy and turn them against America. Hasn't happened, has it? But of course some people don't have to answer for their flawed pre-war predictions.