Politics & Power Quote by Duncan Hunter

The line performs a neat bit of political judo: it turns a messy, contested war into a feel-good story about civic awakening. By framing Iraqi participation as “surprising,” Hunter isn’t really talking about Iraqis so much as he’s talking about Americans and what they were prepared to believe. The surprise implies that U.S. expectations were low, whether because of stereotypes about the Middle East, pessimism about nation-building, or the daily churn of insurgency footage. The praise lands, but it also reveals the condescension baked into the setup: democracy is treated like a hobby Iraqis “take to,” not a right they’ve long argued over, fought for, and been denied.

The phrase “enthusiasm” does heavy lifting. It suggests spontaneous, almost contagious legitimacy: if people are excited, the project must be working. That’s useful in the mid-2000s context, when the Iraq War’s rationale was under relentless scrutiny and “purple finger” election imagery became a favored counterweight to casualty counts and sectarian violence. Hunter’s intent is reassurance, directed at a domestic audience anxious about costs and credibility. The subtext is validation: the invasion is being redeemed, or at least softened, by scenes of ballots and lines at polling stations.

It’s also a subtle rebuke to critics. If Iraqis themselves are embracing “elections and politics,” then skepticism at home can be cast as out of step with reality on the ground. The sentence sells hope while quietly laundering responsibility: success is credited to the people’s “enthusiasm,” not to policy choices that may have made stability harder to reach.