Mohammed Al-Diyali, an Iraqi who is about to become a U.S. citizen, has written a moving account of the damage that the war has done to his native country:

But even these small victories, like ours, have come at a huge price. We’ve all seen so many people die, so many people worn away from psychological and emotional stress. You just can’t live a normal life when you drive to work every day without knowing whether a car bomb is going to get you on the way. And that’s the life that most Iraqis are leading now.

Everyone in Iraq wanted a better life. I don’t think there are many of us who wanted it the way it turned out. Now I don’t think you’ll find many supporters of the invasion even among people who were against Saddam. I have many friends who are Iraqi Christians. For them, especially, the past nine years have been a disaster. I wonder whether any of them will be able to stay in the country. A lot of them have left. Many people have left.

Recent polling mostly bears out the remark about lack of support for the invasion among Iraqis. On the whole, it is unsurprisingly the Iraqis least affected by the violence and destruction of the war that have the most positive views of it. The account Al-Diyali gives is far more representative of the experience of Arab Iraqis who had to live through the chaos following the invasion. Bear his testimony in mind the next time some glib warmonger declares how grateful the Iraqis ought to be for all that “we” have done for them.