Some Good news from Iraq

At least some of the news coming out of Iraq is good. The Iraq Index Archive at Saban center for Middle Eastern policy reports some really good news, just an excerpt of things I find extra positive.

Compared to the prewar level:

• nominal GDP has gone up from 20.5 $US billion to 29.3, GDP growth rate has gone from -7.8 to 3.7, and GDP per capita in $US from 802 to 1,051.
• Telephone subscriptions have gone up from 833k to 4,590k as of August 2005.
• Internet subscribers has gone up from 4.5k to 147k
• Commercial TV stations and Independent newspapers/magazines has gone up from 0 to 44, and >100, respectively, as of October 2005.

Those are some good numbers and they reflect a move towards a more open society, more people are getting connected via Internet and phone and they are also getting more sources to read news from. Information is crucial in a democracy (yes even desinformation, since that will be exposed in a full freedom society). Some other numbers are even more interesting and basically goes to show that the people of Iraq views their situation completely different than the west.

Do you think Iraq today is headed in the right direction? Overall = 64%, Kurds = 76%, Shiia = 84%, and Sunni = 6%

• Thinking about any hardships you might have suffered since the
• U.S.-Britain invasion, do you personally think that ousting Saddam Hussein was worth it? Overall = 77%, Kurds = 91%, Shiia = 98%, and Sunni = 13%

• What is your overall support for attacks? On U.S. led forces = 47%, on Iraqi Govt. security forces = 7%, on Iraqi civilians = 1%

What I find especially interesting here are the low numbers from the Sunni muslims, not surprising though since Saddam was Sunni muslim and favoured his own sect, blood is thicker than water in this case. This is also extra evident when looking on the geography of Iraq, the Sunnis do not control any of the land that is "profitable". In the north you have the Kurds controlling the Kirkuk oilfields and in the south with more oil and also the ports to Persian Gulf you find the Shiites. The Sunnis took power by force even though a minority and got the wealth, so now, of course, they are worried to be left out thus they instigate sectarian violence as I wrote about in my previous post. This will only hurt their cause though. A divided Iraq will benefit no one.

On another note, the statistics I enjoy reading the most is actually the statistics about the declining terror in Iraq.

• The explosion of lethal and non-lethal car bombs is down since a high of 136 in May of 2005. There were 30 last month.

• The upper and lower bound of civilians killed in acts of war reached their greatest since May of 2003 (thus excluding those killed during the invasion) of 1,414 to 2,475 in September of last year and have fallen sharply since. Last month 418 to 732 were killed. Overall, 28,400 to 32,000 civilians have been killed since the start of the war.
• In multiple fatality bombings by IEDs and roadside bombs, the number kills has gone down from a high of 481 to 1074 last September to 305 to 397 last month.
• Non-Iraqi civilian contractors killed have trended down from a high of 31 in August 2004 to 11 last month.
• Attacks on Iraqi oil and gas pipelines, installations, and personnel are trending down from a high of 30 in November of 2004 to 10 last month.
• The number of daily attacks by "insurgents" trended upward until it reached 100 in October of last year and has trended downward since to 75 last month.

And now for the most positive piece of statistics:

• Tips received from the population have gone up steadily to 483 in March of last year to 4,700 in September., the latest number.

How sweet is this? People are actively showing that they no longer in any form support the terrorists. Democracy might still be coming to Iraq, lets all hope that the outburst of sectarian violence don't stop this development.

Sincerely
Mr Silence Dogood