[are you better off now …]

Topic: Foreign Affairs

A new poll finds that Iraqis believe they are better off now than they were before the U.S. invasion a year ago, even in surprising categories like electricity services. The positive sentiments are dramatically higher among Kurds than among the population in general, which is no surprise; but even the numbers for the Arab population are positive. (The poll doesn’t differentiate between Sunnis and Shi’ites.) The pollsters find that “the level of personal optimism is extraordinary: Seventy-one percent expect their lives to improve over the next year.”

Meanwhile in America, 60 percent say they are dissatisfied with “the way things are going in the United States at this time.” But then, unlike the Iraqis, we don’t have a constitution that guarantees human rights, healthcare and social security.