FrontPageMagazine: Iraq By The Numbers

Iraq By The Numbers
By Steven Vincent
FrontPageMagazine.com | May 3, 2004

"IRAQIS TO U.S: GO HOME,” screamed an April 28th headline on USA Today’s website. And indeed, according to a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll conducted among nearly 3,500 people, 71 percent of Iraqis view the Coalition as “occupiers” of their country and 57 percent want the troops to leave within a few months. Worse, by a 46 to 33 percent margin, Iraqis feel the invasion created more harm than good. Even worse, 58 percent expressed a negative view of U.S. troops, with an astonishing 64 percent of Baghdad’s population claiming that attacks on U.S. soldiers can be justified. No wonder USA Today tagged a second headline to the article “POLL: IRAQIS OUT OF PATIENCE.”

But wait. The same poll indicated that 61 percent of the Iraqis believe that the suffering they’ve endured since the invasion was “worth” the removal of Saddam Hussein. Moreover, 89 percent agreed that Iraqis themselves could not have removed the dictator. Eighty-four percent stated that their family incomes were about the same or better than the invasion, while 63 percent believed that life will improve in their nation over the next five years. Perhaps a more accurate USA Today headline might have read, “UNGRATEFUL IRAQS ENJOY BENEFITS FROM INVASION.”

But wait again. When asked if they based their negative assessment of American soldiers on personal experience, only seven percent of Iraqis and eight percent of Baghdadis said yes. In a related question, only eight percent of Baghdadis affirmed that either they or any family members had had personal interaction with U.S. troops So why do they have such a sour perception of GIs on? Thirty-nine percent admit to basing their opinion on what they’ve “seen,” 54 percent on what they’ve “heard.” What in the name of Aisha’s camel is going on here?

Let’s take that last statistic first. It’s impossible to overstate the torrent of rumor and gossip Iraqis receive on a daily basis—and which, if it involves negative stories about the U.S. (or Israel), they uncritically consider true. Take, for example, the enchanting folks of the Sunni Triangle. Traveling from Ramadi to Fallujah to Tikrit and beyond, I heard identical complaints--U.S. soldiers show “disrespect” to Iraqi women, steal “money and gold” from Iraqi homes and are “Zionist infidels.” Now, aside from that last allegation, no doubt some GIs have justified these Iraqi complaints. But the Sunnis’ charges were so unvaried and similar, that I wondered if I were hearing different versions of a single story told over and over again in order to satisfy some pre-existing resentment toward America. And lo and behold, the USA Today poll mirrors these same objections: 55 percent of the Sunnis claimed that GIs showed “disrespect” to women, 75 percent said they mistreated Iraqi families whose homes they searched, and 54 percent felt they showed lack of respect while searching mosques. All this, even though only 10 percent admit to personally experiencing these outrages

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Front page magazine is the webrag of David Horowitz.

It has absolutely NO credibility.

It is the mouthpiece of neocons and worse, and lies, distorts and does all the other deceitful things the right wing extremists do.

In short, it's nothing but propaganda for the extremists who have hijacked this country.

Thanks for the tip.

can it get any more pathetic than this? If they have to stoop to spinning poll
numbers to show they're winning, they might as well give up.