Funmurphys: the Blog

The Plural of Anecdote Isn't Data

The Volokh Conspiracy seems to add another blogger every time I read them (I'd link to them if I knew how to pronounce the name (yeah, like they care)), but that only makes them better. But that's not the point; the point is that they have an email from a Naval Reservist in Iraq that's well worth reading.

" The tension is high all around here [in Baghdad], but not necessarily because of the protests or potshots being taken at the Army patrols. Everyone wants to succeed and is working 24/7 to do it, but it doesn't always seem as the world understands the issue because of the limited view the press provides. There is a very talented team assembled, with not the greatest access to the usual resources (phones, computers, air conditioning, etc). They’re also going to need some good people to fill their shoes in a couple of months; i.e., the President of Michigan State needs to head back to school at summer’s end."

I'm happy to hear of his positive experience, but as he notes, it's hard to tell what's going on because of the limited view I have. You read negative stuff, you read positive stuff, and you try to get an idea of how things are going, of what's happening over there. And frankly, you just can't tell. Nor is it clear that you can sum it up with a single adjective like well or poorly. It's a big country, and it isn't going to be homogenous. If you asked people in this country how things are going here, you'd get a wide diversity of opinion. Yet when it comes to foreign countries, we want a single response. How's safety over there? We'll, I'm sure there are locations over there I'd be much safer in than certain locations right here in river city, but there does seem to be a security problem. And at the height of the negative reports on looting (including the Baghdad museum) in Iraq, there was an incident in St. Louis where a school was cleaned to the bare walls -- apparently the theives started loading up a truck Friday night, worked through the weekend, and didn't stop until there was nothing left to take. It was ignored local news; the press was too obsessed with looting in Iraq to worry about looting in some poor neighborhood of St. Louis.

But I think there is one clear fact -- that as of right now, whatever the reality is, whatever may come, the bulk of the Iraqi people are better off without Saddam as their leader.