New Iraq Poll

[Pangloss]

Interesting poll by ABC News, Time, the BBC, NHK and Der Spiegel (the oddest coalition of pollsters I've ever heard of).

 

http://abcnews.go.com/International/PollVault/story?id=1389228

 

Some of the more interesting numbers:

 

- More than 60% feel "very safe" in their own neighborhoods

- 61% say security is good

- Average household income up 60% over last 20 months

- 70% of Iraqis view their own economic situation positively

- 69% expect things to get better over the next year

- 69% confident in Iraqi police

- 57% prefer democracy over religious government, and that number is rising and the religious preference is falling

 

On the down side:

- Less than half (46%) say the country is better off now than it was before the war

- Roughly half say it was wrong for the US to invade (a rising number)

- While 71% say *they're* doing well, only 44% think things are going well for the country; 52% say "badly"

- Roughly 2/3rds oppose US forces in Iraq (a rising number)

- Half would like to see the US leave soon

 

 

What these numbers say to me is that most of the partisan bickering you hear that trumpet specific numbers are deliberate straw men. Attemps to get you to ignore the big picture that they don't want you to see. That's true of both the Bush administration, which wants everything to look rosy, and the far left, which wants everything to look like armageddon was yesterday. Neither is on your side.

[Phi for All]

It's hard to fault the Iraqis for being patriotic about the sovereignity of their country, no matter how well off the individual might be. If the US were invaded and taken over, yet the new regime helped us improve schools, curb inflation and reduce government corruption, wouldn't we still say things were better in the "old days"?

[ecoli]

 

 

- Average household income up 60% over last 20 months

- 70% of Iraqis view their own economic situation positively

- 69% expect things to get better over the next year

...

- Less than half (46%) say the country is better off now than it was before the war

 

so they liked living in poverty?

[Phi for All]

so they liked living in poverty?

I don't think that's the point, especially since you're looking only at the economic issue. The individual is saying things are looking up, but the country as a whole has been defiled in their eyes.

 

Again, if the US were invaded, even if the invader cleared up what they thought was wrong with us, wouldn't we still be a bit cranky about being invaded in the first place?

[Pangloss]

There's an old saying that I don't recall the origin of: "They'll love us when we win." The idea being that you hate the people who freed you from the previous regime because things are tough and not getting better fast enough to feed your family, etc, but then later when you look back on things in retrospect, you remember that things were tough but you're more inclined to feel it was worth the effort.

 

Not saying that's necessarily the case here, but it could be a factor in some folks' thinking.

[Sisyphus]

It's still humiliating to be invaded and propped up by forgeigners, particularly if those foreigners happen to be arrogant, condescending asses. I doubt there will ever be a great deal of gratitude among the Iraqis.

 

Then again, Japan and West Germany became our close allies after reconstruction. But in those cases we had a common enemy (the Soviets), and we had Truman and Eisenhower instead of Bush and Rove. Also, nobody was telling Germans or Japanese they had a religious necessity to fight at any cost, at least not once the "official" war was over.

[john5746]

You'll find similar results in the Soviet Union also. I think people have the perception that under a dictatorship or communism or theocracy that everyone just feels oppressed all the time. I think on the most part, people just try to make a living and get by as best they can. A fat belly is more important than a say in your government for most I think.

 

It looks like things are getting better, but for many, maybe not as well as three years ago. Hey, that is true for some in the US. As long as we are there, we will be blamed for the problems, but will get no thanks for anything good. Isn't that how government is perceived in the US?