[Dean's World] Dave Price: Don Surber Nails It; Iraqi Asks For Patience

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Posted by Dave Price:
Don Surber Nails It; Iraqi Asks For Patience
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1178307735.shtml


   Two must-read essays.
   Hard to excerpt from [1]Surber's piece, since it's not really in
   paragraph form, but here's a taste.

     What [Bush] did say was, "The transition from dictatorship to
     democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our
     coalition will stay until our work is done. Then we will leave, and
     we will leave behind a free Iraq."
     Of course it has not been easy, nor did I expect it to be. Our
     forces have been in South Korea protecting the fledgling democracy
     there from outsiders for all of my 53 years.
     American forces have made a difference one can see. The average
     male in South Korea is now four inches taller than his cousin in
     North Korea. South Korea has lights after 9 p.m.; North Korea does
     not.
     I won't go into how much more advanced materially and
     technologically South Korea is. Let's just say my wife is driving
     her second Hyundai.

   I hadn't heard the "4 inches taller" statistic before; that's pretty
   astounding.
   Meanwhile, Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari [2]pleads the case for
   not abandoning his country's nascent democracy.

     Last weekend a traffic jam several miles long snaked out of the
     Mansour district in western Baghdad. The delay stemmed not from a
     car bomb closing the road but from a queue to enter the city's
     central amusement park. The line became so long some families left
     their cars and walked to enjoy picnics, fairground rides and
     soccer, the Iraqi national obsession.
     ...
     We remain determined in spite of our losses. Spectacular attacks
     may dominate foreign headlines, but they cannot change the reality
     that Iraq has made steady political, economic and social progress
     over the past four years. We continue to strengthen our nascent
     democratic institutions, pursue national reconciliation and expand
     Iraqi security forces.
     ...
     Iraqis are standing up every day, and we persevere because there is
     no other option. We will not surrender our country to terrorists.
     They have failed to cripple the elected government, and they have
     failed to intimidate us into submission. Iraqis reject their vision
     of a future whose hallmarks are bloodshed and hatred.

   In 20 years, will we be marveling over statistics showing that free
   Iraqis are several inches taller than their unfree Arab counterparts,
   or sporadically sending bombers from Okinawa to hit Al Qaeda havens in
   the ruins of Baghdad while dodging Iranian SAMs fired from their new
   provinces?

References

   1. http://www.dailymail.com/story/Opinion/Don+Surber/200705032/What-Bush-did-not-and-did-say/
   2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050301548.html?hpid=opinionsbox1