this poll just kind of makes you feel a bit sad that they feel this way and don't say they are validated in feeling that half of americans are like the abuse photos, because they are not. to say that is to justify stereotypes and ignorance. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm.../ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_us_poll&cid=540&ncid=716 By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) is fond of telling Americans they have liberated Iraq (news - web sites) and that the country's future generations will be thankful. The current generation, however, overwhelmingly views U.S. forces as occupiers and wishes they would just leave, according to a poll commissioned by the administration. The poll, requested by the Coalition Provisional Authority last month but not released to the American public, found more than half of Iraqis surveyed believed both that they'd be safer without U.S. forces and that all Americans behave like the military prison guards pictured in the Abu Ghraib abuse photos. The survey, obtained by The Associated Press, also found radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is surging in popularity as he leads an insurrection against U.S.-led forces, but would still be a distant finisher in an election for Iraqi president. "If you are sitting here as part of the coalition, it (the poll) is pretty grim," said Donald Hamilton, a career foreign service officer who is working for Ambassador Paul Bremer's interim government and helps oversee the CPA's polling of Iraqis. "While you have to be saddened that our intentions have been misunderstood by a lot of Iraqis, the truth of the matter is they have a strong inclination toward the things that have the potential to bring democracy here," he said in a telephone interview Tuesday from Baghdad. Hamilton noted the poll found 63 percent of Iraqis believed conditions will improve when an Iraqi interim government takes over June 30, and 62 percent believed it was "very likely" the Iraqi police and Army will maintain security without U.S. forces. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: "Let's face it. That's the goal, to build those up to the point where they can take charge in Iraq and they can maintain security in Iraq." The poll was conducted by Iraqis in face-to-face interviews in six cities with people representative of the country's various factions. Its results conflict with the generally upbeat assessments the administration continues to give Americans. Just last week, Bush predicted future generations of Iraqis "will come to America and say, thank goodness America stood the line and was strong and did not falter in the face of the violence of a few." The current generation seems eager for Americans to leave, the poll found. The coalition's confidence rating in May stood at 11 percent, down from 47 percent in November, while coalition forces had just 10 percent support. Ninety-two percent of the Iraqis said they considered coalition troops occupiers, while just 2 percent called them liberators. Nearly half of Iraqis said they felt unsafe in their neighborhoods. And 55 percent of Iraqis reported they'd feel safer if U.S. troops immediately left, nearly double the 28 percent who felt that way in January. Forty-one percent said Americans should leave immediately, and 45 percent said they preferred for U.S. forces to leave as soon as a permanent Iraqi government is installed. Frustration over security was made worse this spring by revelations of sexual and physical abuse of Iraqis by U.S. guards at the Abu Ghraib prison. The poll, taken in mid-May shortly after the controversy began, found 71 percent of Iraqis said they were surprised by the humiliating photos and tales of abuse at the hands of Americans, but 54 percent said they believed all Americans behave like the guards. Anger at Americans was evident in other aspects of the poll, including a rapid rise in popularity for al-Sadr, the Muslim cleric who has been leading insurgents fighting U.S.-led coalition forces. The poll reported that 81 percent of Iraqis said they had an improved opinion of al-Sadr in May from three months earlier, and 64 percent said the acts of his insurgents had made Iraq more unified. However, only 2 percent said they would support al-Sadr for president, even less than the 3 percent who expressed support for the deposed Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). The coalition's Iraq polling of 1,093 adults selected randomly in six cities — Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Diwaniyah, Hillah and Baquba — was taken May 14-23 and had a margin of potential sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Crucial details on the methodology of the coalition's polling were not provided, including how samples were drawn. The most recent independent polling by Gallup found more than half of Iraqis want U.S. and British troops to leave the country within the next few months. An Oxford International poll taken in February found a higher level of optimism than more recent polling taken after months of bombings and other violence. Still, only a quarter of those polled by Oxford said they had confidence in coalition forces to meet their needs, far behind Iraqi religious leaders, police and soldiers.
I think polls like this are questionable at best. Suppose there were 150,000 soldiers from the Mexican army that attacked Texas to liberate us from the "evil Rick Perry" . Suppose that after capturing Perry they were still roaming the streets of Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and roaming the countryside as well. Would you want them here? Yup, I'd be wanting to kill me some Mexican soldier too. And I don't even own a gun. Just think what kind of business Carter's Country on the Katy Freeway would be doing. Cha-ching!
The other story here is that the Bush administration was sitting on this poll and wasn't planning on disclosing it until it leaked -- as it conflicts with the "Happy Bunny/Things aren't that bad!" PR strategy. When the suppression of information by the President and his subordinates becomes so routine as to barely even merit mention, that's highly problematic. (Note, please don't give me the "we are at war" routine, that has nothing to do with the suppression of information as practiced by the administration, from Cheney letting Lay & Co. dictate energy strategy, to camouflaging of medicare costs, to cost of tax cuts, all the way down the line) I haven't been around for that long, but I've never seen anything like it in a democratic society with standards like ours.
So what is your point? Did u say u understand that how they would be mad? Do u agree that we should pull out? What is it that u are saying?
umm...i dont really get your point. saddam actually killed and tortured his citizens if they didnt agree. its not like most iraqis want to kill US soldiers...they just want us gone. the disturbing thing is how many of them think we are like prison abuse photos. i mean that is a pretty serious issue.
That's because they only interviewed the angry Iraqis This would be understandable if it was a sarcastic statment and so noted.
The coalition's confidence rating in May stood at 11 percent, down from 47 percent in November, while coalition forces had just 10 percent support. Ninety-two percent of the Iraqis said they considered coalition troops occupiers, while just 2 percent called them liberators. Nearly half of Iraqis said they felt unsafe in their neighborhoods. And 55 percent of Iraqis reported they'd feel safer if U.S. troops immediately left, nearly double the 28 percent who felt that way in January. Forty-one percent said Americans should leave immediately, and 45 percent said they preferred for U.S. forces to leave as soon as a permanent Iraqi government is installed Well only 2% view us as liberators. Is this enough t change the opinion of the war supporters? 55% feel it would be safer if we just left. How do you supporters of the war defend our occupation in the name of democracy? Isn't it strange that conservatives who constantly cry that the US government can do nothing right and should be strictly limited think that the US government can now make the Iraqis want us there?
LOL We lied about Saddam's weapons program so that we could attack (unprovoked), invade, overthrow and occupy *their* country -- the same country we bombed into smithereens 13 years ago and kept poor and starving with sanctions. Worse, more than 10,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the last 18 months of American occupation. And then they find out that American "liberators" are torturing, raping and murdering Iraqi POWs in their own country. How are they supposed to feel? We've been their sworn enemy for the last 20 years -- and we expect them to welcome us with open arms after everything that's happened? That's an absurdly naive expectation. Yes, it would have been nice if they'd kiss our ass and call it ice cream. But they're pissed, and we have to deal with that or things will only escalate.
Those ungrateful bastards. This is the oppurtunity we need to just kill them all and take their oil to boost our economy. -oskislammer
well all i can say is that its disappointing. many of the people there still believe that we are mainly there for oil and imperialistic reasons. so i guess thats why so few view us as liberators. i know you think we are there for oil, but quite frankly there are easier ways for the US to get oil....eg. ANWR. they think that if we just left the violence would stop, but is that really true? i mean you'd still have al-queda trying to get rid of any western influences and they would still be murdering our workers over there and still causing havoc to the iraqi govt., especially if it wasn't organized to defend itself yet. i'm not saying we should be running them for 10 years, but we are in the process of handing things over. its not as if we want to stay there too long. there is too much public pressure here in america to pull out also, but its not as if we can just pick up and leave. i dunno maybe i am wrong and we can just pick up and leave tomorrow and just forget it. do you think we would be better off just leaving iraq in the next month?
