Fascinating new scientific poll results are in on Iraqi public opinion. The American Enterprise Magazine and Zogby International have conducted a study. The news sounds good. Iraqis are positive.

OpinionJournal - What Iraqis Really Think - We asked them. What they told us is largely reassuring.

Interestingly, Sunnis were far less enthusiastic about democracy than the majority Shi'ites, which could be interpreted several ways. It's good that the majority population, and thus the majority overall, favors democracy, and it's not unreasonable that a pure democracy may be a natural concern for the minority population, as well. This makes the constitutional construction and communication of its protections (how it will protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority) important.

The majority Shi'ites are also LEAST receptive to the idea of an Islamic government. Osama bin Laden is almost universally unpopular, and interestingly, "[l]ess than 30% of our sample of Iraqis knew or heard of anyone killed in the spring fighting. Meanwhile, fully half knew some family member, neighbor or friend who had been killed by Iraqi security forces during the years Saddam held power."

Read it all.