I set out, as I said, to examine a widely-held belief that you expressed, and continuing in that spirit, I notice that in your response you were selective and turned a blind eye to the negatives that could shake your faith. Like countering that the civil war isn't that bad and Iraqis can sit in cafes and discuss politics (wondering if the next car bomb will blow up the cafe they're sitting in), but ignored the situation with their new leader, a US-installed puppet who is widely reported to have a violent streak. In general your response was a reaffirmation of your faith, expressed in optimistic interpretation and speculation, rather than a rebuttal with facts.

It's quite a phenomenon, and I'd say that the Bush campaign seems to try very hard to make "faith-based" arguments to exploit it, and to avoid addressing the concrete facts. That's going to be difficult to counter during the campaign--Rove's being quite clever to armor Bush partisans with a quasi-religious faith that's very resistant to rational argument.

There's an irony in it, too. Part of the faith is the certainty that Iraqis and Muslims in general will abandon their faith (particularly the requirement of Islamic government) when presented with the rational arguments for the American Way. Yet, I don't think you'll give up your faith in Bush no matter what facts are presented to you--why do you believe that other people will be more amenable to reason?