According to this ABC News poll, linked to by Instapundit and many others, 49% of Iraqis want a democracy, 28% want a strong leader "for life," and 21% want an Islamic state. Moreover, the strong-leader option isn't that much of a threat: "six in 10 Iraqis can't name a single national leader they trust," and when asked who they trusted the most, no more than eight percent of Iraqis gave the same answer. I submit this as evidence that our attempt to bring democracy to Iraq is not quixotic.

The poll asked many other questions too. Check it out. One odd thing: it says 40% of Iraqis polled self-identified as Sunni Muslim, 33% as Shia, and 23% as just Muslim. I thought the Shiites were at least 60%; that's what I've read everywhere else. The poll claims a 2-point margin of error, though, with 2,737 Iraqis polled, putting an upper bound of 58% on Shia affiliation.