Chris Bowers writes up the implications of a recent internal survey that “has been distributed to top officials at the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency and State Department.”
While the poll had some positive signs for U.S. policy makers, opposition to the U.S. presence was strong everywhere except the Kurdish north… In the Shiite-dominated south, 52 percent said they strongly opposed the coalition, and 68 percent in Baghdad felt the same way.
The survey also shows that, everywhere except the Kurdish region, majorities ranging from 53 percent in and around Kirkuk to 90 percent in the Sunni cities of Tikrit and Baquba believe the U.S.-led forces will not “improve the situation in Iraq.”
And if that is not grim enough, Bowers links to a Boston Globe article that states:
Meanwhile, a recent internal poll conducted for the US-led coalition found that nearly 45 percent of the population supported the insurgent attacks, making accurate intelligence difficult to obtain. Only 15 percent of those polled said they strongly supported the US-led coalition.
Bowers rightfully asks:
Iraqis don’t want us in Iraq, yet we stay in Iraq. I know that there are some people out there who oppose withdrawal, and I wish to ask them a simple question. How can you justify the occupation of a foreign country that did not attack us when the overwhelming majority of that country does not want us to be there? How is that not wrong? What is perhaps even worse is that the majority of the Democratic leadership wants us to stay in Iraq, even though the majority of Iraqis do not want us to stay in Iraq, and the vast majority of people who vote for Demcorats do not want us to stay in Iraq.
This is just reprehensible.
