Good News From Iraq

Jeff Jacoby looks past the haze of smoke and finds that yes, progress is being made in Iraq.

The number of weddings in Iraq has soared since the fall of Saddam. "The people I see are not affected by insecurity -- I've had a 75 percent increase," a Baghdad marriage judge told the Christian Science Monitor. "Young people are wishing for a better life, so they come to me and get married." The going rate for a dowry -- paid, in Iraq, by the groom's family -- is down sharply since the war. "Today, the girls' parents aren't asking for as much," the judge explained, "which tells us that their families don't want any barriers to marriage." Sure, people marry for all kinds of reasons. But it's hard not to see the wedding boom as anything but an Iraqi vote of confidence in the future.