The continued terrorist campaign in Iraq and the fact that many in the West want Iraq to fail so that they can get at Bush and Blair, have occulted the immense successes achieved in the past three years in the newly liberated nation. The most important of these is the destruction of the physical edifice of despotism followed by the slow but steady crumbling of its intellectual and moral infrastructure. This latter process may take generations before it is completed. But there is no doubt that the Iraqis are psychologically and culturally moving away from despotism rather than toward it as they had done for more than half a century.
Iraq’s economic performance has also been impressive. According to Word Bank reports, Iraq enjoys an annual economic growth rate of 17 percent, the highest in the Muslim world. While part of this is certainly due to skyrocketing oil prices there is no doubt that the emergence of tens of thousands of small and medium businesses has also helped inject life into Iraq’s moribund economy. As a result, unemployment has been cut in half while the value of the new Iraqi dinar has risen by almost 15 percent against the Kuwaiti dinar and the Iranian rial, the two most sought-after foreign currencies in Iraq. Income per head per annum which was estimated at $750 in the final years of Saddam Hussein is estimated to reach the $1100 level later this year.
Iraq today also has a higher proportion of its children at school than any other major Arab country while the farming sector, devastated under Saddam Hussein, is beginning to revive on a spectacular scale. That the Iraqis have confidence in their future is further underlined by the fact that for the first time in half a century more Iraqis, factoring in the real threat of almost daily acts of terror, are returning home than leaving it.
Iraq is the ideal choice for becoming a model for democratic modernization in the Arab world. Its natural and human wealth offer it advantages that most Arab nations could only dream of.
A successful Iraq, one that is prosperous and democratic, would spell the end of all despotic ideologies in the region — from statism to nationalism and passing by Islamism. This is why all reactionary forces in the region have united to prevent Iraq from succeeding. Some of these forces are engaged in a terrorist war that is primarily aimed against the people of Iraq. Others are using their positions of power in some neighboring states to ferry weapons to the terrorists, to conduct propaganda campaigns against the democratic project in Iraq, and to foment dissension within the new political leadership in Baghdad.
Defeating the combined forces of thee vicious and determined enemies is not easy. But, by God, it is a cause worth fighting for.
Indeed it is!
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