Munqith al-Dagher and Karl Kaltenthaler, Washington Post: A striking positive shift in Sunni opinion in Iraq is underway. Here’s what it means
Iraqi security forces have made great progress toward defeating the Islamic State in Iraq. Whether this military success will translate into enduring stability will depend in large part upon the attitudes of Iraqi Sunnis toward the postwar state. Since 2003, Iraqi Sunnis have viewed the political system as unfair and marginalizing their role in the nation’s politics. A recent public opinion survey we carried out reveals a startling and potentially significant shift in Sunni attitudes toward the Iraqi state.
A nationwide poll of Iraqis carried out by the Almustakilla for Research group in April 2017 found that for the first time since our surveys began in 2003, Sunni Arab public opinion in Iraq is very positive about the political situation in the country, while the Shiite Arab view of politics has grown more negative.
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WNU Editor: I think it is premature to make claims that public opinion is shifting in Iraq. I have been following Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and I have lost count over the years on reading these type of stories.
1 comment:
"I think it is premature to make claims that public opinion is shifting in Iraq. I have been following Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and I have lost count over the years on reading these type of stories."
Pshaw. If I have learned anything from reading the Washington Post, it is that their admirable journalists know what people think, better than the people themselves do. They are certainly better positioned to express what ordinary people think. And to explain it, quantify it, package it, and – only when strictly necessary – obscure it.
It doesn't matter that most of their journalists don't speak the language(s) of the countries they write about. It doesn't matter that almost all of them are located thousands of miles away from those countries. It doesn't matter that some of their Iraqi contributors have been accused of working for the CIA. These journalists – these heroes - do what we, the unwashed, simply cannot. And because of this service to humanity, I think that the Washington Post just might warrant a Nobel prize for explaining what other people's words actually mean. No: a prize for explaining what their thoughts actually are.
Think about it: a schlub like you or I might try to explain ourselves, but fail abysmally. We have no accreditations, as do the Wash Post journalists. (Are you accredited? Answer truthfully.) We haven't been to Harvard. Or at least Brown. We laugh at Buggs Bunny cartoons, and have pocket lint. How can plebs like ourselves be sure of what we actually think?
The Washington Post, that's how.
Three cheers for the Washington Post! Huzzah!
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