A Factual Report Card On Iraq

The Brookings Institute has an index everyone should read. It is lengthy, but it is thorough and free from partisan spin. Anyone that can analyze the simplest of data can read it and interpret it, without much difficulty.

Here is the Iraq Index.

Anti-war types and the media they control are quick to point out and exaggerate each and every negative, they possibly can, for the specific purpose of casting a negative light on the President. Now, there is nothing wrong with legitimate criticism mind you, as long as the information is accurate and presented in an objective manner, free from partisan spin. But, their objective is not to present information in an objective manner and accuracy is not much of a concern.

Don't get me wrong, there are some sobering statistics and one cannot help but wonder if some outcomes would have been different, if some better decisions would have been made. But it is, what it is. And in some cases, the data is quite positive, successfully refuting the many weak and faulty arguments, to the contrary. So, since the negative data has been pretty much covered thoroughly and ad nauseum by the MSM, I will post some positive data from the Index Of Political Freedom.

As of November 2005, Iraq ranked 4th in middle eastern nations. (pg. 28 of 56)

Israel: 8.20
Lebanon: 6.55
Morocco: 5.20
Iraq: 5.05
Palestine: 5.05
Kuwait: 4.90
Tunisia: 4.60
Jordan: 4.45
Qatar: 4.45
Egypt: 4.30
Sudan: 4.30
Yemen: 4.30
Algeria: 4.15
Oman: 4.00
Bahrain: 3.85
Iran: 3.85
UAE: 3.70
Saudi Arabia: 2.80
Syria: 2.80
Libya: 2.05

Source: EIU

Now, just where do you think they were before the war?

The point is, this is not the disaster or the failure that some say it is, neither is it the shining success that many on the right, claim. But when you analyze data, one set of statistics does not take any more precedent than another. And neither does one set negate the other. In other words, there is no black or white here. There are many gray areas.