Iraqis optimistic — and they want us gone
A new ABC/BBC poll of Iraqis finds that 84 percent believe security in their area is good, and 58 percent say things are going well for their country, up from 22 percent in the same poll in 2007. Sixty-four percent prefer democracy over other types of government. Overall, the improvement of Iraqi outlook is remarkable.
But they still don’t like us. Fifty-six percent still think the U.S. invasion was wrong, compared to 42 percent in support. Only 18 percent say they have a positive opinion of the United States, and 81 percent want us gone from their country by 2011 (with 46 percent wanting us gone even sooner).
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113 comments Add your comment
George American
March 17th, 2009
3:04 pm
“But they still don’t like us. Fifty-six percent still think the U.S. invasion was wrong, compared to 42 percent in support. ”
Boo hoo. Next time, overthrow your dictator yourself!
The Corporal
March 17th, 2009
3:05 pm
Jay – what do you think the figures would have been in Japan and Germany a couple of years after the war? Tough titty.
P.S. If they prefer democracy, why does their Constitution say, “nothing in this Constitution shall violate the tenets of Islam”?
By the way, here is a great candidate for President Urkel to nominate for a cabinet level position. Right down his alley.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/17/olson.release/index.html
Concerned Citizen
March 17th, 2009
3:06 pm
It comes as no surprise that they don’t like us. Why would anyone want their country invaded by another country? Irrespective of the motives, rationales, or excuses, imperialism is so 20th century.
DPB
March 17th, 2009
3:16 pm
Two interesting points:
First, 84% say security in their area is good. Not bad for a war that the Democrats said was lost. Second, 58% say that things are going well for their country. Here in the US the best you can get under Obama and the Democrats is about 36%.
The Corporal
March 17th, 2009
3:16 pm
To Concerned Citizen:
Trust me; the criminal element, organized crime, drug dealers, counterfeiters, etc., etc. don’t like search warrants or arrests either. I guess it just goes with the territory.
CommunistAJC
March 17th, 2009
3:17 pm
Here’s an idea. Let’s go ahead and fight this war on our own land. That way, the libs can surrender early and become prisoners of war. In the end, the guys with guns, conservatives, can take the country back and begin where our founding fathers left off. Good idea?
N.J.
March 17th, 2009
3:18 pm
Hey, George American, they never asked the United States to overthrow their dictator in the first place. No one asked them if they wanted it done. They obviously didnt want it done, otherwise they would have done it themselves. Under Saddam, Iraq had the most technologically advance society in the Middle East, the highest standard of loving outside of the oil states of the Persian Gulf, and the conditions that women lived under were the envy of the Muslim World. Now, women with PhD’s who were university professors under Saddams regime have had to go into hiding from the religious fanatics who are now the strongest political party in Iraq, which need I remind you (actually since you probably never knew to begin with” blew up the American Embassy in Kuwait in 1983.
Yup, that is correct, the Islamic Dawa Party, the political party of the leaders of Iraq are members of the same political party that blew up the American and French Embassies in Kuwait, assisted the Lebanese Shi’ites to form Hezbollah, who copied the Dawa Party by blowing up 221 American Marines in Beirut. Most of the prisoners in Saddams jails were those who assisted in the formation of Hezbollah in Lebanon and who blew up Americans in Beirut or were affiliated with those who sought the use of violence against Americans in the Middle East.
G
March 17th, 2009
3:21 pm
We have paid enough blood and treasure for a needless war against a country that posed no threat at all to us.
For the past 6 years there has been no reality to MISSION ACCOMPLISHED -it will always be Bush’s war!
CommunistAJC
March 17th, 2009
3:29 pm
G, it’s also the democrats war. They signed on to it.
PJ
March 17th, 2009
3:29 pm
Since this war began we have the following stats:
1. 4,259 U S Service Members killed
2. 179 British and 139 from other countries in the collation killed
3. 31,010 U S Military injured
4. 151,000 Iraq Civilians killed
5. Over two million Iraq citizens displaced and fled from their country
6. $17,569,500.00 (and still counting) Georgia Dollars spent
7. $605,580,000,000 (and still counting) U S Dollars spent
No one in Iraq wants to get our more than I do.
BDAtlanta
March 17th, 2009
3:31 pm
Sounds good. Let’s pack up and move out.
G
March 17th, 2009
3:34 pm
Communist, I gave you enough rope, and guess what?
You hung yourself!
williebkind
March 17th, 2009
3:36 pm
G: Take a moment and read the Koran. If you can find no reference to my demise as a non-muslim then I will drop to my knees and kiss your feet……
We have been at war with them since the creation of Israel. Get your head out of biased liberal media and the sand. Just be happy there were very few liberals, if any, who spilled blood in the war. You can see the liberal military dodgers in college or on this blog.
BDAtlanta
March 17th, 2009
3:37 pm
If another country invaded the US and occupied it for 7 years, you’d all be saying whatever it took to get the invaders to leave.
If America was invaded, how many of you would have turned into insurgents yourself.
I’m sure I’d be dead by now from being an insurgent.
Dusty
March 17th, 2009
3:39 pm
Bookman, how many times are you going to beat a dead horse? You bring this up to get the anti-warriors all stirred up when the war is won.
You just can’t get over it, can you? Still got the old anti-Bush anti-war sentiments hanging out to dry, again. How does it go now?..hmmm…USA invaded deliriously happy country and turned the citizens into unhappy slaves of freedom. Hip hip and why did we not run from a terroristic loving dictator with possible wmds!! Good question? I guess most of us are not cowards. You can tell us about the rest.
If you are upset because the Iraqis did not send a valentine, be patient. They will probably get over wartime before you do.
CommunistAJC
March 17th, 2009
3:39 pm
G,
did your mom drop you on your head as a child? You gave me enough rope? Dude, seriously, stop smoking weed.
CommunistAJC
March 17th, 2009
3:41 pm
Lets let taxpayer, G, Midori, God Hates Trash and Brad Steale man the front line when we are invaded by China. At least that way we will get rid of unwanted problems.
G
March 17th, 2009
3:41 pm
The GOP and its supporters should be ashamed.
They rammed this war down our throats and screamed that liberals were anti-American and unpatriotic.
They told us over and over that we didn’t support the troops because we knew this war was wrong and Bush was incompetent.
They were wrong. And they have to live with it.
PJ
March 17th, 2009
3:44 pm
To G @3:21 pm – Conservatives love to point out that Democrats voted for this war, that they saw the intelligence, that even Clinton said they had weapons of destruction, but when all is said and done this is still Bush’s war. He and his Administration made the case to go and as Commander in Chief he sent our troops. It was a case of the blind leading the blind. They didn’t know or want to know the facts, made up facts to back their case, misjudged the out come, and left us holding the bag. But like some children when wrong is done they want to share the blame. They need to man up.
CommunistAJC
March 17th, 2009
3:44 pm
G,
your party ran the Vietnam war down Americas throat. You should be ashamed.
You were wrong and now you have to live with it. Hack.
Redneck Convert
March 17th, 2009
3:45 pm
You mean we are just suppose to leave without any oil at all? I mean, we went over there and hung this Saddam and others and then throwed a bunch in jail for them. We took power away from the Sunnys and give it to the Sh*ts. We spent close to a trillion bucks on them. We got 4200 of our boys kilt and 20000 or so maimed for life. Course, they wasn’t our boys and we didn’t know them, but still. And they want us out? And now they say they don’t like us to boot?
What a Commie country!
williebkind
March 17th, 2009
3:47 pm
BDAtlanta: Your comments surely convinced me you are not a southerner. My great grandparents were under martial law from 1865 to the 1880’s and lost all they owned including land. My grandparents talked about the hardships all the time and that info was passed down to each generation.
Angry Green Man
March 17th, 2009
3:48 pm
How about we kill two birds with one stone. Let’s send Madoff and the AIG execs over to Iraq to finish off the war. At the same time pull the combat troops out to Iraq’s borders and watch the melee commence. If those people are worth what they “earn”, they should be able to clean everything up no problem.
Joey
March 17th, 2009
3:49 pm
According to commondreams.org, I’ll be kind and call it a Progressive group, the U.S. in 2003 had “702 military bases in about 130 countries.” If ABC/BBC asked the same questions in those countries, I suspect the result would be close to the same.
It is my view that there are about 624 other bases we should close and 112 other countries we should retire from before we abandon Iraq to the hell that many of you wish upon it.
CommunistAJC
March 17th, 2009
3:55 pm
G,
when have I ever been judgemental? I just point out what it really is. Nope, I’ve never had a woman pay for an abortion. Keep making up stuff hack.
You have some major issues G. Don’t blame me for you problems.
PJ
March 17th, 2009
3:59 pm
To: williebkind
“You can see the liberal military dodgers in college or on this blog.”
You may have a point here but don’t forget to add Draft Dodgers Dick Chenny and Donald Rumsfield and AWOL George W. Bush (I know – no proof of GW’s absence but he sure didn’t go to Nam).
raisedanidiot
March 17th, 2009
4:03 pm
To dustball…I see that you and your ilk are the ones still beating that dead horse. Bookman is your boy, not ours. I’m quite confident now that Obama is in that we will soon be out, but that won’t undo all the pantywad that your daddy bush got us into. We’ll be sorting through this quagmire of kaka for years to come. Thanks for getting us in the doodoo in the first place, and now you’re btching about the clean up. You neocons never fail to amaze me.
Angry Black Man
March 17th, 2009
4:05 pm
If they want us gone, just leave. Let them kill themselves. That’s been going on for thousands of years and won’t stop anytime soon.
radiowxman
March 17th, 2009
4:08 pm
I guess the Obama administration has to give the previous one loads of credit. After all, despite the democrats desire for the Bush administration to fail, Iraq seems to have become a stable, (relatively) safe place to live.
Not only that, the Iraqi government seems to have a handle on the ethnic problems that have traditionally plagues the country. Wasn’t it our new VP who told us that the Sunnis, Shia and Kurds could never live together, and we’d be better off breaking up the country into thirds?
And hey, how about that Iraqi military? I guess General “Betray Us” Petraeus and his charges did a good job keeping the nation (relatively) safe and was able to train the Iraqi military and police to make the transition.
But wasn’t it Harry Reid who said the war was lost — even before the surge started? Weren’t the American soldiers compared to Pol Pot’s troops? Didn’t the honorable Mr. Kennedy call Iraq an impossible quagmire?
I wonder how all of this was able to change? Oh, I know. It must have been Obama’s speech in Germany. Or something like that. Couldn’t have been anything Bush and Co. did. We all know they’re a load of incompetent morons. Or sophisticated, Machiavellian manipulators. One of the two, I forget.
Regardless, Obama will move troops out of Iraq and take all the credit. And continue to blame Bush for the worsening domestic economy. And the usual suspects will lap it up.
CommunistAJC
March 17th, 2009
4:09 pm
raisedanidiot,
President Teleprompter ain’t bringing anyone home. Don’t know where you’ve been but he’s already said that he’s leaving 50,000 troops there and adding troops to Afghan. HA HA HA.
The Corporal
March 17th, 2009
4:09 pm
No one has answered my original question. What do you think the “go home” percentages were for Japanese and German citizens after WWII ?
CommunistAJC
March 17th, 2009
4:10 pm
Angry Black Man,
yep. Nothing we can do will change their mentality.
radiowxman
March 17th, 2009
4:13 pm
Corporal: I’ll do you one better.
Polls say that an increasing number of South Koreans want the US military presence gone. Anyone think we should abandon the DMZ? Perhaps we could ask the South Korean leaders what they think.
Angry Black Man
March 17th, 2009
4:18 pm
Exactly Commie, that’s why I don’t subscribe to the pre-emptive strike ideology. I can’t just walk up to someone and give them a beatdown just because I think they are going to beat me. Now if you run up on me with your fist clenched and cocked back ready to swing, I’m gonna use every lesson I learned in defensive tactics and make you wish you had never done that. Fighting is a way of life in the Middle East. Once the world is nuked dead, the cockroaches over there will still be fighting.
raisedanidiot
March 17th, 2009
4:18 pm
Commie…as I already alluded to…we’ll be cleaning up after your halfwit daddy for years. It just amazes me that you guys like dustball can sht all over the floor then cry about how we clean it up…just makes me want to throw it in your face and tell you to lick it up.
@@
March 17th, 2009
4:22 pm
What the hell, jay, let’s just throw everyone BUT AFGHANISTAN under the bus. Obama’s good at those kinda decisions. The struggling democracies in Eastern Europe mean nothing to him.
Talabani has made public his intentions not to seek re-election. He was key to Iraqi Kurds. They haven’t suffered enough….let ‘em suffer a little more. They deserve it, right?
PJ
March 17th, 2009
4:25 pm
To: CommunistAJC @4:09 pm – What is so funny about your statement? Talk about not supporting the troops. Your kind only use the troops as a sword over our head when you want to call someones patriotism in question. When they’re of any use to the Republicans than they to be are saluted but when they are under a Democrats control they are the butt of your jokes. That’s sick my man
The Corporal
March 17th, 2009
4:27 pm
To radiowxman: GOOD ONE!
To All You Libs:
Here’s the bottom line. Why are you gripping at all of us conservatives?
If they want us out then we can leave. Is President Urkel deaf?
Hillbilly Deluxe
March 17th, 2009
4:29 pm
To Corporal:
My Daddy was in the occupation forces in Japan in 1946-47. He said that although things were for the most part peaceful you had to be careful because there was the occasional person now and then who would take a shot at you if they got the chance.
It isn’t very well known but as late as 1947 there were still isolated elements in both Japan and Germany who wanted to fight on. They had no popular support though because by that time the general population had seen all the suffering they cared to see.
Observer
March 17th, 2009
4:31 pm
I wonder when we’re going to get all the oil? This was a war for oil wasn’t it? I’m sure I remember someone making that claim after the war began. Now, who was that?
Let there Be Blood
March 17th, 2009
4:37 pm
PJ – How many terrorists killed? How many of those ‘civilians’ were terrorists, potential terrorists, mothers and fathers of future terrorists? And who killed all those ‘civilians’? If my math is right then there’s 150,000 down and 17 millionor so to go!
CommunistAJC
March 17th, 2009
4:39 pm
PJ,
just giving you a taste of your own medicine. Thanks for playing.
raisedanidiot, when did Bush become my dad? My dad is a chemical engineer at GP. He’s MUCH more intelligent than W.
Paul
March 17th, 2009
4:40 pm
Jay
Got a music clip titled “turn out the lights, the party’s over”?
I have a theory why there still so much anti-Bush vitriol: it provides an out for coming to grips with the fact that Pres Obama will keep tens and tens and tens of thousands of servicemembers in Iraq for years and years and years.
Iraqis want us gone, but Obama’s not listening…
G or anyone – care to shift sights to Afghanistan? Ready to answer the same questions about Afg that you pummeled Iraq supporters with, like….
how do you define ‘victory’?
how do you know you’ve achieved it? and last but not least:
is Afg worth one more American life?
oldmac
March 17th, 2009
4:41 pm
What was the phrase again? Oh Yeah, “Mission Accomplished.”
NH
CommunistAJC
March 17th, 2009
4:42 pm
The Corporal,
bottom line: Jay and the rest of the a$$ clowns on this blog know that President Teleprompter can’t bring the troops home.
I Report/ You Whine
March 17th, 2009
4:43 pm
When do you think Oblahmi will get the message?
Bwahahahahahahahahaha, bozos.
Let there Be Blood
March 17th, 2009
4:45 pm
Paul – Afghanistan is the key to keeping Pakistan out of Islamo-facist control, and the Paki’s have WMD’s. Of course, the Islamo-facists have just as much right as we do to have nuclear weapons. At least until they drop one on your house!
The Corporal
March 17th, 2009
4:46 pm
To Hillbilly Deluxe:
Exactly! Thank you.
And to all of you “fair weather” friends who let South Vietnam go down the tubes three years after our military left, if we had seen that through, the First Air Cavalry (or some unit) would still be near the 43 mile wide DMZ in that free country just like the 2nd Infantry Division is near the 250 mile wide DMZ today in that country.
But then there is no honor among wimps.
PJ
March 17th, 2009
4:46 pm
Commie I never joke about the troops nor do I personally know anyone who does. They are never a laughing matter even when playing a childish game like payback. They are too important and someones loved one.
CommunistAJC
March 17th, 2009
4:48 pm
PJ,
why are you targeting me? I never dissed the troops. You should ask the democrats why they despise the military so much.