The scurrilous critics of the liberation of Iraq are fond of trotting out irrelevant polling data to bolster their case that Saddam should have been left to torture his people and support terrorist networks in peace. The latest example is the Gwynne Dyer attempt to paint the new government of Iraq as Al Qaeda would like us to see them (see previous posting by Mumon.) This is a dishonest exercise.
We all know that the Iraqis are tired of the violent attacks organized and carried out on their streets by the dead-enders, the Baathists, the religious fanatics, and the friends of Al Qaeda, and that they feel the attacks will only stop when American troops have left their country. But does their dissatisfaction with the Occupation automatically translate into mistrust or hatred of the interim government as Dyer asserts? In other words, is the average Iraqi in the same mindset as a Democratic Party hack who still seethes over the loss of the 2000 election?
Probably not. Indigenous polls show broad support among Iraqis for the interim government:
A poll cited in a Defense Department document called “Five Steps to Sovereignty” said 68 percent of Iraqis have confidence in the interim Iraqi government, and 79 percent think the interim government will make things better for Iraq. The new government has an 80-percent approval rating among Iraqis, 73 percent of whom approve of Allawi, and 84 percent of whom approve of Yawar.
So with all due respect to our dark-minded conspiracy theorists (who’ve now sunk to calling Iraq a “quagmire” and blaming it on the J-E-W-S), things in Iraq aren’t really all that bad.
Even occupation-era polling showed that the vast majority of Iraqis thought their lives the same or better than they were under Saddam, not actually a shock to most of us.
UPDATE: John complains that I’ve labeled him an anti-Semite by equating his remarks on Israeli control of George W. Bush with Billy McKinney’s famous remark on the American media. Fair enough, he doesn’t mean what he says.
But this brings us to a problem with carpet-bombing as a method of argument: the Moore-inspired partisans attack the President using a variety of arguments, many of them contradictory to other arguments they employ, with no apparent regard for the inconsistencies. At the same time, according to this logic, Bush is a tool of the Saudis, the Carlyle Group, the International Zionist Conspiracy, the Christian Right, and Karl Rove, yet he’s so stupid he can’t be relied on to remember who’s his master at any given time, and yeah, he’s evil to boot. We first heard this line of self-contradictory whining after the Florida recounts of recounts of recounts, when the Democratic Party’s dead-enders said Bush was a moron who somehow managed to steal the election from their much more brilliant candidate.
It would be nice if these people would make up their alleged minds, but not as humorous as watching them step on themselves.
“things in Iraq aren?t really all that bad.”
Another poll is bigger than your poll:
60 percent of Iraqis believe that US-led forces were wrong to invade their country….
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/29/1088392640549.html?oneclick=true
“More than 80 per cent of Iraqis said they had no confidence in US and British forces. Asked about the presence of these forces in Iraq, 58 per cent opposed it, and 42 per cent supported it.
Asked to characterise the forces, 72 per cent called them either occupiers or exploiters, while nearly 28 per cent called them liberators or peacekeepers.”
Richard, Richard, Richard, there you go again.
Now where is this “Five Steps to Sovereignty” document, so we can see how and when your “poll” was taken?
And I see you’ve stooped to anti-semite-baiting. That’s too bad.
All I said was that Israel “played a part” in the calculus that led to the current quagmire.
Or are you of the sort that think that any criticism of the U.S.’s Israel policy is “anti-semitic?” Funny, a lot of Israeli Jews must be anti-semites then!
Also, I gotta say, “Link please.”
Clearly the poll Dyer cited had different results than you indicated.
And the other poll, well, I could say the majority find Iraq now as bad or worse as it was under Saddam.
Not good.
You’re spinning so fast I think you’ll fly apart.
And yes, it’s a quagmire.