A new day for Iraq?

The Times of London reports on a new poll that shows "most Iraqis believe life is better for them now than it was under Saddam Hussein."

The survey of more than 5,000 Iraqis found the majority optimistic despite their suffering in sectarian violence since the American-led invasion four years ago this week.

One in four Iraqis has had a family member murdered, says the poll by Opinion Research Business. In Baghdad, the capital, one in four has had a relative kidnapped and one in three said members of their family had fled abroad. But when asked whether they preferred life under Saddam, the dictator who was executed last December, or under Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, most replied that things were better for them today.

Only 27% think there is a civil war in Iraq, compared with 61% who do not, according to the survey carried out last month.

As Allahpundit points out, however, the poll data isn't quite as rosy as the Times account paints it:

The Times of London article …  misleads a bit in reporting that only 27% of Iraqis say the country is in a state of civil war. That’s accurate as far as it goes, but another 22% say they’re “close” to a civil war but not there yet. TOL neglects to mention that.

It's also somewhat troubling to learn that, while a plurality of Iraqis understand that the U.S. troop surge is aimed at bringing "security and stability back to Iraq," some 22 percent think the additional troops are designed to facilitate an invasion of Iraq or Syria. (Another 27 percent say they're confused or don't know.) Sounds like—to quote the warden in Cool Hand Luke—"what we have here is a failure to communicate."

But even if the Times' reporting is a shade too upbeat, the poll is still powerful evidence that, four years after the start of the war, Iraqis view their circumstances very differently than most Americans imagine.

(For inveterate data hounds like Allahpundit, the crosstabs are here in .pdf format. Powerpoint charts prepared by the polling firm may be downloaded here.)