The hope of simple men doesn't make for flashy headlines, apparently. Steven Vincent recalls a recent exchange with a Baghdad cabbie:
Over the tape-recorded sermons of a Shia cleric, my driver related how last spring he took his two children on a pilgrimage to the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf, something he couldn't do under Saddam. "I was so happy, my family happy!" His comments began tumbling out one after another. First he criticized "Arab media — Al-Jazeera and Arabia TV. They only say bad things about U.S., only talk about bombs and killing Americans. Never about how things are growing in Iraq, getting better." Then he turned to the entire Arab world. "They fear Iraq will become a democracy, then every country will want to become democratic and the rulers will be in trouble-they only want people with one thought, one mind." As for Iraq's future, he had great optimism, provided that the new constitution included religious freedom for everyone — "Muslims, Christians, Jews, because Mohammad said 'Let there be no forcing of religion.' Mohammad said we are all brothers and to kill a man is to kill your brother."By the time I reached my hotel, I had a Koran-sized lump in my throat. I peeled off a wad of dinars, but the cabbie refused to take the money. After I implored him to accept payment, he finally took the bills, slipped them in his shirt pocket, then took them out and handed them back to me. "You give me the money, now I give it back to you — a gift to my friend from America." Then, turning up the volume on the imam's sermon, he gave me a big missing-toothed smile and drove off in a cloud of exhaust. Watching him disappear into traffic, I had tears in my eyes, and they weren't from the Baghdad smog.
And, according to Vincent, the ambivalent and hostile reactions to American occupation come largely from Sunnis - Saddam's favored class, and the inhabitants of Iraq's most insecure cities and towns. Iraqis who have a stake in democracy do appreciate our presence. Is that enough perspective for the homefront?
