The Impression Most Of Us Have About Iraq Doesn't Match This Story

I READ A STORY last night that showed an inside view of what happened to the district of Ramadi over the last year. The end result was an impression of the problem in Iraq so different from the impression we get from newscasters that I had to do a doubletake. I read it again. Here's the article and below are my observations:

How Life Returned To The Streets
When al-Qaeda Was Driven Out

Here are my comments:

1. It is a district of 400,000 people. The group of al-Qaeda that arrived in Ramadi was only several hundred. Then they recruited local thugs to increase their numbers. And this group of well-armed men held the whole district as an occupying force, and they held it with terror.

2. The al-Qaedans were not locals. They weren't even from Iraq. They were fundamentalist Muslims who had come from other countries to fight infidels because that's how to get to heaven. They came to impose strict Shari'a law on citizens who did not want it.

3. Those two facts above are so different from the normal point of view on Iraq it made me want to shout it from the rooftops. It is so different from the mainstream view that says, basically, the U.S. is an occupying force that has invaded a foreign country and is trying to impose its own values on a people who do not want it. That's not what's happening at all. The Iraqis want their own government and they are being hampered by terrorists doing what they do best: Terrorizing. They were terrorizing whole cities, destroying buildings, killing people, and imposing archaic rules of behavior on everyone against their will.

4. The al Qaeda forces in Ramadi have been ousted. The changes made in Ramadi were used as a model and the same results have been attained throughout much of the Anbar province. They've found a solution that works, and it works well enough to be replicated. This again is so different from a point of view so widespread it is almost never even said aloud. The perspective is presumed, and is so widely accepted it isn't expressed directly: That there is no way to make it work in Iraq because "they" don't want us there, and we're just being bullies by staying and forcing our will upon them. And thus, it will never, and could never work. These people don't want democracy, they don't want freedom, and they just want us to leave them alone. The fact is, a vocal and violent minority don't want freedom and they are dead-set on imposing their restrictive laws on everyone else whether they like it or not.

5. These results were achieved even with a reduced population of good citizens. The ones who were too afraid left the district and stayed out while the people who were left did all the work. Once the job was done and the district was back in the hands of the people, the ones who ran came back to the district.

6. I quote from the article: "More than 700 shops and businesses have reopened. Restaurants stay open late into the evening. People sit outside smoking hookahs, listening to music, wearing shorts – practices that al-Qaeda banned. Women walk around with uncovered faces." Do you see what this means? The people are not doing this because the U.S. "occupying forces" are making them do this. They're not doing this to please their "conquerers." Most of them want freedom.

7. One of the merchants in the area said, "It was fear, pure fear. Nobody wanted to help them but you had to do what they told you." When al-Qaeda ruled the streets, there were regular beheadings of people who resisted or were collaborating with the Iraqi government or U.S. troops. They left the beheaded corpses in public to scare the rest of the population. The fact that there were "regular beheadings" means that even as harsh as the Islamist thugs were, many people still tried to undermine them, risking their lives to do so. The brave resisters were totally committed, in other words, to not living in an Islamic theocracy. It also means these people support their fledging government, which is not the impression we're getting from our own media.

8. If it can be done in Ramadi and elsewhere in the province, it can be done elsewhere in Iraq. Let us not give up on them by pulling our troops out too early. Convince your representatives to stay in Iraq and finish the job. The reason the people of Ramadi were able to oust the well-armed and well-funded terrorists was because U.S. forces were helping. Now that the local police is up and running, U.S. forces don't have to do much. But until that point is reached in other areas, the powerful U.S. forces are a key factor in the success of the new Iraqi democracy.

Please share this far and wide. We need general support in the West for the continuing success in Iraq. We cannot allow foreign al-Qaeda forces to take over. It would be horrible for the Iraqis and would be bad for the West.

Whether there is general support in the West is largely up to you and me. The mainstream newsmedia is not helping. It has to be person-to-person. This is a war of memes, and you are on the front line.