You might've 86'd this, man.

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/165.php?nid=&id=&pnt=165&lb=hmpg2
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=14689

Not very hard to uncover scientific public opinion polls of Iraqis, if you care to look at them. Pretty pathetic analysis by Bobby Ghosh.

Well I would sure be happy to die to keep these nutters from killing each other.

One more thing, I had heard that the reason you get people to say they want us there is because they like the money we shower on them. Again, that is something I would rather not participate in. I don't know why, it is just me I guess. I am odd in that respect.

Well I wonder who this guy talked to - cooks and drivers inside the Green Zone? Viva McCain! 100 years of civil war, 100 years of Yankee Imperial Dollars!

In any case who really cares about the likes and dislikes of the Iraqis? They have always been pretty irrelevant to the US occupation - as indicated, presumably, by the number of dead Iraqis since 2003. Those liberals you keep talking to are probably confused on this point. Take my advice and stop listening to those wobblers.

yeah, they love us Matt. That's why they keep shooting at us.

"They"?

I didn't realize the entire Iraqi population was shooting at us.

Apparently all those Iraqis shooting with us don't count.

That's lazy man. You're suggesting the Iraqis don't hate us because of a journalist's anecdote, despite there being mountains of data to the contrary. If you can't address that point, at least have the dignity not to say anything at all.

They (Iraqi insurgents). Shoot. At. Us. With. Our. Own. Guns. And McCain doesn't seem to know the difference between Sunni and Shi'a unless Joe Lieberman is whispering in his ear. And Purim is the Jewish Halloween.

$4,000 a second Matt. Is this war worth it?

Chris:

Pretty pathetic analysis by Bobby Ghosh.

Did you actually read Ghosh's article? It doesn't sugercoat the situation in Iraq.

Not very hard to uncover scientific public opinion polls of Iraqis, if you care to look at them.

Did you read the actual World Public Opinion poll, or just the executive summary?

For a people who hate us and want us out, they're not in an awful hurry for us to leave:

- 35% want us out within 6 months
- 35% within two years
- 29% only as the security situation improves.

According to this poll, 77% of Iraqis think that even given all the subsequent hardships, the American ouster of Saddamm was worth it.

According to this poll, in response to a list of "most important reasons" for favoring U.S.-withdrawal, Iraqi opinion is fractured and only 2% say it's because they don't like the way our military treats Iraqi civilians.

It's all there...if you care to look at it, Chris.

That's lazy man. You're suggesting the Iraqis don't hate us because of a journalist's anecdote, despite there being mountains of data to the contrary. If you can't address that point, at least have the dignity not to say anything at all.

You might read the findings of this poll, as well:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/images/PollingUnit/1060a1IraqWhereThingsStand.pdf

That is, if you care to look at them.

You'll find Iraqi public opinion trending strongly in a positive direction toward U.S. presence, policies and the condition of their country.

Of course most Iraqis favor an end to a large U.S. presence. We're a foreign army. But it is simple-minded to equate that with hating the U.S. and wanting us out now. If you actually care to look at the polling itself, Iraqi public opinion is more complex than you are painting it to be. For example, according to the ABC/BBC/ARD/NHK poll, 80% of Iraqis support "future U.S. efforts conducting security operations against Al Quaeda and foreign jihadis; providing military training,weapons and reconstruction aid; and assisting in security vis-à-vis Iran and Turkey." That's not exactly "Yanqui go home."

As a Daily Pilot reporter named Chris Caesar said yesterday, "Not very hard to uncover scientific public opinion polls of Iraqis, if you care to look at them."

You might re-consider who you're calling lazy, Chris.

And maybe Bush is more popular in Iraq than he is here. Well, even with inflation $3 trillion's gotta buy you something - even a talking point.

Since the subject of the post was Iraqis not hating America after all, I feel obliged to point out that being afraid of a US withdrawal hardly equates with them not hating us - let alone actually liking us.

I got so worked up over Chris's first comment that I went through all of the polling data like Jubal just did and came to the same conclusion: 64% of Iraqis want us to stay at least two more years.

- 35% want us out within 6 months
- 35% within two years
- 29% only as the security situation improves.

I bet if you asked them in two years, you would get the same answer. They don't want to have Saddam in charge and they don't want the insurgents in charge.

THEY WANT TO BE IN CHARGE OF THEMSELVES AND BE SAFE.

We are the best hope for both.

I just wish I had read Jubal's anylasis before digging through all that hand-wringging myself.

Chris and Dan are drinking too much liberal media Kool-Aid.

I guess they don't care if the women of Iraq have more rights or if it helps spread freedom and democracy in the middle east. Nor do they care about the brutal attacks on the Iraqi people after we leave or the refugees that will have to leave their home like the Vietnamese did after the commies took over.

Where is the bleeding heart for these folks?

A least we know Daily Pilot reporter Chris Caesar is a knee-jerk liberal who doesn't do his homework. We can keep hat in mind when reading his articles.

News flash, News Watch: knee-jerk liberals aren't the only ones who refuse(d) to buy into the Quagmire real estate boom.

lol. I seem to have ignited a firestorm.

No, I didn't read Ghosh's article. That's hardly relevant. I could care less what he has to say here -- YOU employed his quote and rhetorically asked "I thought the Iraqis hated us?" to, uh, terrible effect. I was calling you out, not Ghosh.

Surprisingly, I agree with both of you. A majority of Iraqis said they wanted us out in two years -- though, in fairness, that was nearly two and a half years ago. The report also shows about 1-in-2 Iraqis support attacks against American forces (presumably because they love us so tenderly), that 86% of Iraqis wanted a timetable for withdrawal *two years ago*, and that the day-to-day violence in Iraq would decrease should the US leave.

They also seem to think that public services, political divisiveness, and crime would all improve when the US occupation ends.

I didn't comment on whether or not it was because soldiers mistreated Iraqis. I think the major contentions -- that the occupation fuels violence and offensive -- is lucid and accurate enough. Not sure what you mean there.

As for the second critic, I think you're pretty misinformed if you think women's rights have improved under the US occupation, or that Democracy is somehow blossoming in the Middle East right now because of Bush's messianism. Please. It's also pretty effete to claim that I somehow oppose women's rights because I don't endorse the American occupation of Iraq.

"Knee-jerk liberal." Impressive.