U.S. Civil War and the Iraq War: Mixed opinions on liberation

As the Iraq War winds down, a public opinion poll finds that 56 percent of Iraqis still say they don’t think the war should have been fought.

At the same time, 64 percent believe the democracy the United States won for them is best for their country, according to the recent ABC-BBC survey.

Iraq’s mixed attitude toward its own liberation is not unprecedented. In 1864, toward the end of the American Civil War, 45 percent of Northerners voted against Abraham Lincoln principally over the war that cost 600,000 American lives to save the Union and free 4 million slaves.

Lincoln’s war. Factor in the 99.62 percent of Southerners who voted for someone other than Lincoln in 1860, adjust that for the North’s 2.5 times greater population, and assume 99.62 percent (This is just a wild guess.*) of the South’s 3.5 million slaves welcomed Lincoln’s battle, and we discover that about 49.66 percent of Americans opposed the war for emancipation.

The rough numbers reveal that, back when the U.S. population was only 32 million, preserving “government of the people, by the people and for the people” was a close call.

Today, America’s 19th century opinions on the Civil War compare to 62 percent of Iraq’s Kurds who believe the U.S.-led coalition has done a good job with the liberation and democratization of Iraq, but only 32 percent of Shiite Arabs and only 8 percent of Sunni Arabs who believe their liberators have done well. (Saddam Hussein was a Sunni Arab.)

Culture clash. In Iraq, about 115,000 Iraqis have died in the fighting and terrorist attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. More than 4,000 Americans also have died, and tens of thousands of GIs have been wounded to ensure that Iraq’s 25 million people will be left with a secure and stable democracy.

But the clash of cultures colors Iraqi opinions on the removal of Saddam’s fascist regime and the introduction of freedom. Some Iraqi Arabs are embarrassed that they could not liberate themselves from Saddam, but had to be liberated by majority Christian nations who support the Arabs’ No. 1 foe, Israel.

Experience shows that the expansion of liberty seldom follows a simple or direct path. In war or peace, no major step forward is universally popular. Nevertheless, if humanity is to have its best chance at peace and progress, the trend must be toward freedom.

Frank Warner

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See also: The Democrats didn’t help the president win this war (Civil War and Iraq war compared).

* The figures of 99.62 percent of white Southern voters against Lincoln and 99.62 percent of Southern slaves for Lincoln probably are high. In most states of the Confederacy, Lincoln wasn't even on the ballot. As far as the slaves' opinion of Lincoln, it is hard to measure. There were no polls, but on almost any question, it's hard to find any large group in 99.62 percent agreement.

Comments

[Richard Complainary]

Thanks for the comparison and bringing reality to light.