Of course this poll does not include the 2 million Iraqis who have fled the country.
"One in four Iraqis has had a family member murdered, says the poll by Opinion Research Business. In Baghdad, the capital, one in four has had a relative kidnapped and one in three said members of their family had fled abroad."
even with all of that the overwhelming majority are happier now than they were before we got there.
Not to mention the fact that although you don't hear about it too much in the msm, the new stategy has been very effective in quelling the violence so far.
The reason for posting this story is just to point out that while things are FAR from perfect, they're not as bad as we are led to believe.
"Only 18% said they had confidence in US and coalition troops, and 51% said they thought attacks on coalition forces were justified."
It's good that conditions in Baghdad have improved somewhat. Mostly because Al Sadre is laying low.
I think that we should negotiate with al Sadre. He is probably the most popular man in Iraq, he doesn't like the Iranians, and has more credibility with the Sunnis than any other Shiite.
Think about their situation right now. They've been in a war torn country for 4 years, People are dying every day, and the coalition media and some of the politicians have been calling this a defeat or a quagmire since day 1.
Add to that the fact that Bush 1 deserted them the last time, AND the U.S. deserted the south vietnamese when they were winning the war and you have to think that we don't have such a great track record. In fact, with the way Bush has been pussying out on everything from the border, to the libby thing, to the most recent firings of fed. prosecutors, and my confidence has been dropping too. I just hope he finds some balls soon and finishes the job in Iraq, and of course tells everyone to go fuck themselves with the calls to fire gonzalez.
The only hope for Iraq is political reconciliation. If things are calmer in Baghdad then we need to negotiate with all parties, except al Qaeda. The military has said there is no military solution.
There is always a military solution, if there is political will to back it up. Sadly we don't have that right now.
There is no need for reconciliation, we're not "making up" with anyone.
We removed saddam and there was a power void. Multiple parties are vying to fill that void, that is the reason for all of the fighting right now.
The key, in my opinion, is leaving a fair, democratically elected government in power that can defend itself and govern properly. Again, it's not easy, and it's not perfect but it's not as bad as the media and the anti war people want to make it appear.
It might be more accurate to say that there is no military solution with current troop levels. Also, I was referring to reconciliation between Shiite and Sunni. Only this can lead to leaving behind a democratically elected government.
I hope for the best but I am not optimistic. I am becoming a little more hopeful that the war will not spread to Iran, which would be a real disaster. There are some signs that the influence of the rightwing idealogues in the Bush adminstration (the Cheney faction) may be waning. Cheney has been wrong about everything so far but is still believed to be pushing for an attack on Iran.
and russians probably preferred khrushchev to stalin.
a government run by teletubbies would be preferable to being ruled by saddam; there are probably less than a dozen world leaders worse than he was.
i fail to see the point of this poll question besides manipulating readers. also, 49% is a plurality, and the article also says "most," which is very misleading.
Thanks for your "glass half empty" perspective donsky.
Here's the deal. There is no civil war, they have had free elections, but they are still in a war torn country where people die every day. Is it perfect? i don't think anyone is saying it is, but that doesn't mean that there's nothing good happening.
so as i've said in the past, we've liberated 25 million people. Add it to the other hundreds of millions that we've liberated in our short time as a nation and it makes me proud.
I am going to have to do a rare thing and agree with Gary. Many of the ones who are in danger have left. Of course a great deal of Iraq is safe. Baghdad is not, and Baghdad has a huge population. I can't imagine having pieces of hot metal ending up in my yard after explosions like the blogger of Iraq the Model did and still remaining hopeful. Every time anyone in my family left the house I would be frantic. But then, Oakland is another kind of hell right now. We had a guy shot in the head on Sunday, in his car while doing errands. He was holding down 2 jobs to support his 2 kids and boom, like that. It just pisses me off!
11 comments:
Of course this poll does not include the 2 million Iraqis who have fled the country.
"One in four Iraqis has had a family member murdered, says the poll by Opinion Research Business. In Baghdad, the capital, one in four has had a relative kidnapped and one in three said members of their family had fled abroad."
Otherwise peaches and cream.
That's the point gary.
even with all of that the overwhelming majority are happier now than they were before we got there.
Not to mention the fact that although you don't hear about it too much in the msm, the new stategy has been very effective in quelling the violence so far.
The reason for posting this story is just to point out that while things are FAR from perfect, they're not as bad as we are led to believe.
There's another poll out as well.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6464277.stm
Some good news for the U.S., some bad:
"Only 18% said they had confidence in US and coalition troops, and 51% said they thought attacks on coalition forces were justified."
It's good that conditions in Baghdad have improved somewhat. Mostly because Al Sadre is laying low.
I think that we should negotiate with al Sadre. He is probably the most popular man in Iraq, he doesn't like the Iranians, and has more credibility with the Sunnis than any other Shiite.
ONLY? 18%. That's pretty good if you ask me.
Think about their situation right now. They've been in a war torn country for 4 years, People are dying every day, and the coalition media and some of the politicians have been calling this a defeat or a quagmire since day 1.
Add to that the fact that Bush 1 deserted them the last time, AND the U.S. deserted the south vietnamese when they were winning the war and you have to think that we don't have such a great track record.
In fact, with the way Bush has been pussying out on everything from the border, to the libby thing, to the most recent firings of fed. prosecutors, and my confidence has been dropping too. I just hope he finds some balls soon and finishes the job in Iraq, and of course tells everyone to go fuck themselves with the calls to fire gonzalez.
The only hope for Iraq is political reconciliation. If things are calmer in Baghdad then we need to negotiate with all parties, except al Qaeda. The military has said there is no military solution.
There is always a military solution, if there is political will to back it up. Sadly we don't have that right now.
There is no need for reconciliation, we're not "making up" with anyone.
We removed saddam and there was a power void. Multiple parties are vying to fill that void, that is the reason for all of the fighting right now.
The key, in my opinion, is leaving a fair, democratically elected government in power that can defend itself and govern properly. Again, it's not easy, and it's not perfect but it's not as bad as the media and the anti war people want to make it appear.
It might be more accurate to say that there is no military solution with current troop levels. Also, I was referring to reconciliation between Shiite and Sunni. Only this can lead to leaving behind a democratically elected government.
I hope for the best but I am not optimistic. I am becoming a little more hopeful that the war will not spread to Iran, which would be a real disaster. There are some signs that the influence of the rightwing idealogues in the Bush adminstration (the Cheney faction) may be waning. Cheney has been wrong about everything so far but is still believed to be pushing for an attack on Iran.
and russians probably preferred khrushchev to stalin.
a government run by teletubbies would be preferable to being ruled by saddam; there are probably less than a dozen world leaders worse than he was.
i fail to see the point of this poll question besides manipulating readers. also, 49% is a plurality, and the article also says "most," which is very misleading.
Thanks for your "glass half empty" perspective donsky.
Here's the deal. There is no civil war, they have had free elections, but they are still in a war torn country where people die every day. Is it perfect? i don't think anyone is saying it is, but that doesn't mean that there's nothing good happening.
so as i've said in the past, we've liberated 25 million people. Add it to the other hundreds of millions that we've liberated in our short time as a nation and it makes me proud.
i was more critiquing the poll--we'd be in serious trouble if a plurality of iraqis didn't think life was better now than under saddam.
I am going to have to do a rare thing and agree with Gary. Many of the ones who are in danger have left. Of course a great deal of Iraq is safe. Baghdad is not, and Baghdad has a huge population. I can't imagine having pieces of hot metal ending up in my yard after explosions like the blogger of Iraq the Model did and still remaining hopeful. Every time anyone in my family left the house I would be frantic. But then, Oakland is another kind of hell right now. We had a guy shot in the head on Sunday, in his car while doing errands. He was holding down 2 jobs to support his 2 kids and boom, like that. It just pisses me off!
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