The world is very complicated. There are bad things happening all the time. But there are good things happening all the time, too. Sometimes bad things come disguised as good things. Sometimes good things look like bad things. It’s tempting to see only the things you want to see, or only the things you expect to see, and thus to deceive yourself.
The New York Times periodically reviews progress in Iraq by looking at the numbers on the ground. The results, like reality, may seem contradictory, giving cause for hope, and cause for hopelessness. Here is the latest update on The State of Iraq. The chart pops up in a separate window, and covers a number of metrics from May 2003 to May 2006. The economy seems to be growing. So is violence, particularly against civilians. As the authors note:
it is increasingly hard to describe Iraq as a glass half-full.
No wonder some of us prefer virtual reality to actual reality.
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