Every Anbar Respondent...

Why isn’t this the prevailing wisdom?

In a survey conducted Aug. 17-24 for ABC News, the BBC and NHK, the Japanese broadcaster, among a random national sample of 2,212 Iraqis, 72 percent in Anbar expressed no confidence whatsoever in United States forces. Seventy-six percent said the United States should withdraw now — up from 49 percent when we polled there in March, and far above the national average.

Withdrawal timetable aside, every Anbar respondent in our survey opposed the presence of American forces in Iraq — 69 percent “strongly” so. Every Anbar respondent called attacks on coalition forces “acceptable,” far more than anywhere else in the country. All called the United States-led invasion wrong, including 68 percent who called it “absolutely wrong.”

Why don’t I see David Broder discussing this?

Al Qaeda, it should be said, is overwhelmingly — almost unanimously — unpopular in Anbar, as it is in the rest of Iraq. But our enemies’ enemies are not necessarily our friends. The United States, it turns out, is equally unpopular there.

Do you think Al Qaeda will suddenly become popular in Anbar province if we leave? Do you think we’ll suddenly get popular if al-Qaeda leaves?

We are not succeeding. The can be no ‘return on success’. The Republicans are willfully lying to you…and to themselves.

3 Comments

billjpa on September 17, 2007 at 12:07 am

what else is new? The problem is that we are well aware of this piece of shit and his bunch of evil cronies. Now, we have another problem. The poodle is gone but don’t worry- here comes the french frier!
Yup- one more fucking right wing conservative bottom dweller rises up to show everyone that the Republic is back!
When does this insanity end?

BooMan on September 17, 2007 at 10:49 am

if Blair was a poodle does that make Sarkozy a welsh corgi?

Connecticut Man1 on September 17, 2007 at 12:59 pm

I agree with you 100%. I picked up on that point when I read the report on the poll numbers last week:

Iraqis currently overwhelmingly oppose the presence of coalition forces to the point where the support of violence against the occupying coalition forces is rising.

Seventy-nine percent of Iraqis oppose the presence of coalition forces in the country, essentially unchanged from last winter – including more than eight in 10 Shiites and nearly all Sunni Arabs. (Seven in 10 Kurds, by contrast, still support the presence of these forces.)

Similarly, 80 percent of Iraqis disapprove of the way U.S. and other coalition forces have performed in Iraq; the only change has been an increase in negative ratings of the U.S. performance among Kurds. And 86 percent of Iraqis express little or no confidence in U.S. and U.K. forces, similar to last winter and again up among Kurds.

Accusations of mistreatment continue: Forty-one percent of Iraqis in this poll (vs. 44 percent in March) report unnecessary violence against Iraqi citizens by U.S. or coalition forces. That peaks at 63 percent among Sunni Arabs, and 66 percent in Sunni-dominated Anbar.

This disapproval rises to an endorsement of violence: Fifty-seven percent of Iraqis now call attacks on coalition forces “acceptable,” up six points from last winter and more than three times its level (17 percent) in February 2004. Since March, acceptability of such attacks has risen by 15 points among Shiites (from 35 percent to 50 percent), while remaining near-unanimous among Sunnis (93 percent).

Kurds, by contrast – protected by the United States when Saddam remained in power –
continue almost unanimously to call these attacks unacceptable.

Acceptability of attacks on U.S. forces also varies by locale, peaking at 100 percent in Anbar, 69 percent in Kirkuk city and 60 percent in Baghdad, compared with 38 percent in Basra and just three percent in the northern Kurdish provinces.

Remember that one of those things that the lying <strike>Surge</strike&gt ESCALATION supporters are touting are the successes in Anbar. Anbar, where there is a 100% acceptability among locals of killing American and other coalition force occupiers.

Remember that speech just last week from the preznit about the successes in Anbar?

Bush said he was encouraged by the update he received today from Petraeus and Crocker and touted recent progress especially in the Anbar province.

“I was pleased with what I heard,” the president said. “The strategy we put in place earlier this year was designed to help the Iraqis improve their security so that political and economic progress could follow. And that is exactly the effect it is having in places like Anbar.

Bush said continuing this progress is vital to meeting the strategic interests of our nation.

“We can’t take this progress for granted. Here in Anbar and across Iraq, al Qaeda and other enemies of freedom will continue to try to kill the innocent in order to impose their dark ideology,” Bush said.

“I am going to reassure them that America does not abandon our friends. And America will not abandon the Iraqi people. That’s the message all three of us bring,” Bush said.

If Anbar is the success story, then it is obvious that bush is looking to replicate this 100% support for killing coalition forces across Iraq as a “key to a secure, stable Iraq.” As you watch “All three” of them – Bush, Petraeus and Crocker – feed their propaganda and lies to Congress in the next week, remember these successes they had previously been touting in Anbar.

The bush mantra: LIE BIG! Overwhelm everyone with big lies and many of them. Make the claims so outrageous that people don’t even know where to begin on refuting them with facts…

billjpa on September 17, 2007 at 12:07 am

what else is new? The problem is that we are well aware of this piece of shit and his bunch of evil cronies. Now, we have another problem. The poodle is gone but don’t worry- here comes the french frier!
Yup- one more fucking right wing conservative bottom dweller rises up to show everyone that the Republic is back!
When does this insanity end?
- BooMan on September 17, 2007 at 10:49 am
  
  if Blair was a poodle does that make Sarkozy a welsh corgi?
Connecticut Man1 on September 17, 2007 at 12:59 pm

I agree with you 100%. I picked up on that point when I read the report on the poll numbers last week:

Iraqis currently overwhelmingly oppose the presence of coalition forces to the point where the support of violence against the occupying coalition forces is rising.

Seventy-nine percent of Iraqis oppose the presence of coalition forces in the country, essentially unchanged from last winter – including more than eight in 10 Shiites and nearly all Sunni Arabs. (Seven in 10 Kurds, by contrast, still support the presence of these forces.)

Similarly, 80 percent of Iraqis disapprove of the way U.S. and other coalition forces have performed in Iraq; the only change has been an increase in negative ratings of the U.S. performance among Kurds. And 86 percent of Iraqis express little or no confidence in U.S. and U.K. forces, similar to last winter and again up among Kurds.

Accusations of mistreatment continue: Forty-one percent of Iraqis in this poll (vs. 44 percent in March) report unnecessary violence against Iraqi citizens by U.S. or coalition forces. That peaks at 63 percent among Sunni Arabs, and 66 percent in Sunni-dominated Anbar.

This disapproval rises to an endorsement of violence: Fifty-seven percent of Iraqis now call attacks on coalition forces “acceptable,” up six points from last winter and more than three times its level (17 percent) in February 2004. Since March, acceptability of such attacks has risen by 15 points among Shiites (from 35 percent to 50 percent), while remaining near-unanimous among Sunnis (93 percent).

Kurds, by contrast – protected by the United States when Saddam remained in power –
continue almost unanimously to call these attacks unacceptable.

Acceptability of attacks on U.S. forces also varies by locale, peaking at 100 percent in Anbar, 69 percent in Kirkuk city and 60 percent in Baghdad, compared with 38 percent in Basra and just three percent in the northern Kurdish provinces.

Remember that one of those things that the lying <strike>Surge</strike&gt ESCALATION supporters are touting are the successes in Anbar. Anbar, where there is a 100% acceptability among locals of killing American and other coalition force occupiers.

Remember that speech just last week from the preznit about the successes in Anbar?

Bush said he was encouraged by the update he received today from Petraeus and Crocker and touted recent progress especially in the Anbar province.

“I was pleased with what I heard,” the president said. “The strategy we put in place earlier this year was designed to help the Iraqis improve their security so that political and economic progress could follow. And that is exactly the effect it is having in places like Anbar.

Bush said continuing this progress is vital to meeting the strategic interests of our nation.

“We can’t take this progress for granted. Here in Anbar and across Iraq, al Qaeda and other enemies of freedom will continue to try to kill the innocent in order to impose their dark ideology,” Bush said.

“I am going to reassure them that America does not abandon our friends. And America will not abandon the Iraqi people. That’s the message all three of us bring,” Bush said.

If Anbar is the success story, then it is obvious that bush is looking to replicate this 100% support for killing coalition forces across Iraq as a “key to a secure, stable Iraq.” As you watch “All three” of them – Bush, Petraeus and Crocker – feed their propaganda and lies to Congress in the next week, remember these successes they had previously been touting in Anbar.

The bush mantra: LIE BIG! Overwhelm everyone with big lies and many of them. Make the claims so outrageous that people don’t even know where to begin on refuting them with facts…

Every Anbar Respondent…

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