A recent poll done in Baghdad by the Gallup organization has two-thirds of the Iraqi people who were interviewed saying it was good to get rid of Saddam despite all the carnage during the war and since. Bremer also told Congress that 67 percent thought that in five years they would be better off, and only 11 percent thought they would be worse off.
Yes folks, it's good news that only 30% of the Iraqis surveyed think it was a bad idea to get rid of Saddam. Thirty percent of 24,683,313 is 7.4 million. That's a lot of people who - apparently - don't like the changes the U.S. is responsible for. And not a few are willing to fight back.
NOTE: The poll is clearly one that has to be taken with several grains of salt. Some people, intimidated by the U.S. presence, might be inclined to say it's good Saddam is gone. Some people, worried about Saddam loyalists, might be inclined to say it's bad Saddam is gone. And the poll was taken in Baghdad. But thirty percent is a pretty big number. Even if it is reduced to 5%, you've got a lot of unhappy Iraqis out there (one million). This seems obvious, but Bremer looks past that to focus on the 62% that are happy about regime change.
... in testimony before Congress, L. Paul Bremer III, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz both cited a recent Gallup Poll that found that almost two-thirds of those polled in Baghdad said it was worth the hardships suffered since the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein. Bremer also told Congress that 67 percent thought that in five years they would be better off, and only 11 percent thought they would be worse off.
That same poll, however, found that, countrywide, only 33 percent thought they were better off than they were before the invasion and 47 percent said they were worse off. And 94 percent said that Baghdad was a more dangerous place for them to live, a finding the administration officials did not discuss.
The poll also found that 29 percent of Baghdad residents had a favorable view of the United States, while 44 percent had a negative view. By comparison, 55 percent had a favorable view of France.
Similarly, half of Baghdad residents had a negative view of President Bush, while 29 percent had a favorable view of him. In contrast, French President Jacques Chirac drew a 42 percent favorable rating.
Paul Bremer III, Paul Wolfowitz and Vice President Cheney, in the past weeks have been citing a pair of public opinion polls to demonstrate that Iraqis have a positive view of the U.S. occupation. But a look at the raw data from the poll on the magazine's Web site reveals Iraqis have a much less enthusiastic view than the administration spinners have protrayed. Oh what a tangled web we weave, when practicing to deceive. But the poll also found that half of respondents said Western democracy would not work well in Iraq, while 40 percent said it would. Asked whether the United States would help or hurt Iraq over the next five years, 35 percent said the U.S. would help but half said it would hurt Iraq.
Yes folks, it's good news that only 30% of the Iraqis surveyed think it was a bad idea to get rid of Saddam. Thirty percent of 24,683,313 is 7.4 million. That's a lot of people who - apparently - don't like the changes the U.S. is responsible for. And not a few are willing to fight back.
