EVER NOTICE HOW IRAQI IMMIGRANTS DON’T SEEM AS PESSIMISTIC as, well, a lot of people who have never been to Iraq? Here’s another piece, from Singapore’s Straits Times of all places, sounding that theme:

I AM half Iraqi and residing in Singapore, and I would like to inform all your readers that nine in 10 Iraqis welcome the American invasion of Iraq. The 1/10 are linked to Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The invasion should be seen through the eyes of the Iraqi people. Whether there is war or no war, Iraqis are dying.

Allow me to recap Saddam’s murderous 24 years in power. . . .

This reduced a once rich and proud nation to misery and poverty. So, where does it all end?

I quote my father: ‘We Iraqis need an electric shock; we, an intelligent and cultured people, allowed a thug to rise to power and lead Iraq from one disaster to another. If the electric shock comes in the form of an American invasion, then so be it.’

To all those who are anti-war, I suggest that they go to Iraq and experience life in Saddam’s Iraq.

They will soon change their view and understand why Iraqis await the day when they are rescued from the evil regime.

Meanwhile, Susanna Cornett has much, much more on this theme. She also thinks that the Iraqi immigrant communities around the world will have a lot to offer the reconstruction effort in Iraq. That’s certainly how things are going in Afghanistan.