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IRAQIS OPTIMISTIC
Some impressive numbers in a new BBC opinion poll out of Iraq:
Interviewers found that 71% of those questioned said things were currently very or quite good in their personal lives, while 29% found their lives very or quite bad.
When asked whether their lives would improve in the coming year, 64% said things would be better and 12% said they expected things to be worse.
However, Iraqis appear to have a more negative view of the overall situation in their country, with 53% answering that the situation is bad, and 44% saying it is good.
But they were more hopeful for the future - 69% expect Iraq to improve, while 11% say it will worsen.
And get this:
The BBC News website’s World Affairs correspondent, Paul Reynolds, says the survey shows a degree of optimism at variance with the usual depiction of the country as one in total chaos.
The findings are more in line with the kind of arguments currently being deployed by US President George W Bush, he says.
Also interesting: asked to nominate a priority for the new government, only 10% (of 1700 respondents) mentioned removing coalition forces.
Disclaimers and all, Jesus H. Christ, how did that get past the comissars?
Posted by Jim Geones on 2005 12 12 at 07:21 AM • permalinkDon’t be fooled by what the BBC put on their website. I was listening to the BBC flagship “Today” news programme this morning on the radio. The headline items selected from the poll were that the majority of Iraqis now opposed the war (itself an untrue statement) and two thirds of them wanted coalition troops to leave (without mentioning that most of them only want this to happen when Iraqi security forces are able to take over - ie they support the UK/US government viewpoint). There was mention that Iraqis appeared quite optimistic but NO other poll result was given. They then ran an interview with the pollsters in which the interviewee had to repeatedly fend off hostile questions about “surely it isn’t possible to carry out a reliable poll in Iraq” coupled with a reporter led piece on “how difficult it is to understand why Iraqis are optimistic”. The pollster to his credit said that they’d been able to go everywhere and drew attention to both the astonishingly and consistently positive attitudes of Iraqis (the words he used were “amazingly high”) and one positive poll result number (confidence in Iraqi forces 70%)as well as the fact that Iraqis actually continued to support the logic of the war (but not its execution). The key result you highlight (71% Iraqis think their life is good or very good) and is the lead on the BBC website was not mentioned at all. MSM spin is alive and very, very healthy.
“But Saddam loyalists have turned against Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant whose fighters travel to Iraq from across the Arab world to blow themselves up in a bid to spark sectarian civil war.”
“Zarqawi is an American, Israeli and Iranian agent who is trying to keep our country unstable so that the Sunnis will keep facing occupation, said a Baathist insurgent leader who would give his name only as Abu Abdullah.”
YahooI don’t care if these Sunni’cides blame Saturn’s Rings, or voice other preverted logic, if the U.S., Aussies, Brits and ALL other allies have turned the corner here and the Iraqi’s find there form of a civilized and defended society, minus the rape rooms, tongue extractions, poison gasses and the like….Damn Fantastic.
Argument deployed:
Iraqis overjoyed,
BBC annoyed.Posted by Dave in Chicago on 2005 12 12 at 09:53 AM • permalinkFunny, we in the U.S. have a similar process. Only we wait until ‘ours’ are dead to collect their votes.
Happens all the time in large metro areas, well large metro cemetery areas.
I am going to go out to the tip of the furthest leaf on a very long skinny limb here and say that I believe the tide has turned in the last couple of weeks in the mainstream media. By that I mean only just. I acknowledge I can’t prove it but it just seems more of this stuff has seeped through.Like Benjamin Graham says about the stock market in the short term it is a voting machine in the long term it is a weighing machine. The fundamentals are coming home.
Posted by the nailgun on 2005 12 12 at 10:12 AM • permalinkEXCELLENT news! But I wonder how long before the leftie talking heads spin this one into bad news?
Oops…..#8, I’m too late! Not long, eh?
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 12 12 at 10:22 AM • permalinkThank you, Jriddell, for the clarification.
Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2005 12 12 at 10:30 AM • permalinkThat any truth at all is getting through the BBC’s ideological firewall is good news. The Iraqis obviously have more faith in the potential of democracy in their country than chuckleheads like Howard Dean and Congressman Murtha, whose notion of foreign policy is to walk around with a self-affixed “kick me” sign on their backs.
No! No! 80% of the Iraqis want us to leave right now! Howard Dean screamed so! You FOOLS! Don’t you SEE?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 12 12 at 11:12 AM • permalinkHowever, Iraqis appear to have a more negative view of the overall situation in their country, with 53% answering that the situation is bad, and 44% saying it is good.
Yeah, well…
Try the same exact poll here in the U.S, (or Oz, I would imagine), and they might find similar discontent. (Does this mean we’re headed for civil war?!?)
The only “news” here for veteran Chrenkoff readers is that the BBC needs to conduct a poll to figure out that Iraqis like freedom better than tyranny.
“The tide is turning in the legacy media” ? Pfft. I’ll take that bet. Name your odds.
Posted by zeppenwolf on 2005 12 12 at 02:15 PM • permalinkJriddell 8
MSM spin is alive and very, very healthy.
No. It’s robust, but it ain’t healthy. And it’s definitely NOT to be taken internally.
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2005 12 12 at 03:14 PM • permalinkHowever, Iraqis appear to have a more negative view of the overall situation in their country, with 53% answering that the situation is bad, and 44% saying it is good.
Yeah, well…
Try the same exact poll here in the U.S. ...
How about try that exact same poll in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Oh wait, they didn’t allow any such polls. I think that’s the number the current result should be compared to. It would probably have been 85 or 90% who said the situation was bad then - surely the vast majority of the Kurds and Shias would have been on that side (and they’re 80% of the country). There were sanctions by the West and the money meant to alleviate the suffering was being stolen by Saddam from starving children, they were subject to arbitrary arrest, they were subject to religious persecution, they had no free press and no internet access, they were victims of rampant cronyism instead of meritocracy, their votes meant absolutely nothing (100% turnout, 100% for Saddam does not inspire electoral confidence), they weren’t free to travel for political or economic reasons, their infrastructure was being run into the ground so Saddam could build more palaces, etc., etc., etc. What’s not to love about all that?
The way I see it, there’s probably been a 30% improvement in that poll number now that people have a basis for hope for the future.
Actually, we’ve had polls like that in the US. Everyone here says their individual economic situation is great and they look forward to better times in the future but they still think the US economy is in the crapper for everyone else. HMMM.
Man, this sure hurts those super double secret Iraqi polls the lefties like to cite. You know, where 99.9 out of one hundred guys on the street want us to be eaten by camel spiders.
I think the interesting thing will be how the MSM explains the turnaround.
Will it be US just got lucky and that it was a close shave? A political miracle even.
Will it be Iraqis did it all themselves and US was irrelevant or even a hindrance?
Explaining how the Iraqi people suddenly were able to understand democracy and run a civil society should be interesting too. Fancy the MSM respecting the average Iraqis intelligence and opinion.Posted by the nailgun on 2005 12 12 at 08:58 PM • permalinkThe ABC midday news actually showed an item from ABC America about the peace and rapidly increasing prosperity in Southern and Northern Iraq. Naturally this was ‘balanced’ with a report on Iraqi interior ministry death squads (but kudos to them for mentioning that the funding for the squads came from Iran).
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2005 12 12 at 11:12 PM • permalink
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The BBC report contains the following disclaimer:
Wouldn’t want anyone to get the idea things aren’t as bad in Iraq as they’re made out to be.