For those anxious to gain a more balanced perspective about the situation in Iraq than can be gleaned from the media hysteria-fest, I recommend this article on National Review Online. From it one gathers that among the Iraqis themselves there is a broad consensus that, despite the appalling violence such as today's sickening slaughter, they feel that other things are broadly going in the right direction. That might just be because they rate things like free elections or rising incomes or the absence of the regime of daily terror, the desire for which simply cannot be imagined by all those in the west who would prefer it if Saddam were still in power. Yes, it's probably all going to get even worse there before it gets better; but the fact is that the Iraqis themselves, in whose name Bush and Blair are being crucified on a daily basis, are actually optimistic; and that's because , for the first time and despite everything, they have been given hope.