“It’s just remarkable in history that a strong power would put its young people in harm’s way and spend its money to bring freedom (to another country) and ask nothing in return,” Boschwitz said.

While he admits that the war isn’t going perfectly right now, Boschwitz remains optimistic about the outcome. He points to the return of many refugees who left the country during the reign of Saddam Hussein, the millions of Muslims who are able to visit Shiite shrines in the country, signs of economic growth, a revitalization of the Iraqi agricultural sector and the growth of free speech in Iraq.

He lists Iranian and Iraqi authors as the sources of his information on progress in the country, saying he doesn’t trust American television and newspaper reports of a deteriorating situation that is bordering on civil war.

“I am more bullish about Iraq than some who only read the papers,” Boschwitz said. “The media is blood and guts — and what bleeds, leads.”

‘A cause celebre for jihadists’

To feel positive about the situation in Iraq virtually requires discounting the accounts from news correspondents covering the war.

More than 20,000 American soldiers have been wounded since the war began and more than 2,700 have been killed. The news is much worse for Iraqi civilians. In recent months, civilian deaths have topped 3,000 a month, according to United Nations reports.

There are reports almost daily of dozens of civilian deaths, often involving bodies mutilated from torture found in locations around Baghdad as Shiite and Sunni militias attack members of opposing sects. The next day, their counterparts retaliate with similar murderous tactics against civilians.

But the bad news doesn’t come solely from the news media. A leaked report from the U.S. ambassador to Iraq last summer talked of the experiences of Iraqis who work at the embassy there. It told of constant fear faced by many Iraqis, of women’s rights declining, of completely unreliable electrical power, of kidnappings and of local employees hiding from everyone that they work with the Americans because they fear for their lives if people find out.

Then came the leak, and resulting partial declassification, of a joint assessment by America’s combined intelligence agencies of terrorism trends.

The report said that the number of Islamic terrorists was increasing and that attacks on U.S. interests worldwide would grow if present trends continue. It listed America’s war in Iraq as a major factor in “fueling the spread of the jihadist movement.”

It suggests that the spread of the terrorist movement is likely to continue for at least five years.

“The Iraq conflict has become the ‘cause celebre’ for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement,” the declassified summary of the report states.

The summary says that “perceived jihadist success (in Iraq) would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere.”

‘It’s too late’