WP: Most Iraqis Favor Immediate U.S. Pullout, Polls Show

[DeepModem Mom]

Most Iraqis Favor Immediate U.S. Pullout, Polls Show
Leaders' Views Out of Step With Public
By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 27, 2006; Page A22

BAGHDAD, Sept. 26 -- A strong majority of Iraqis want U.S.-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers.

In Baghdad, for example, nearly three-quarters of residents polled said they would feel safer if U.S. and other foreign forces left Iraq, with 65 percent of those asked favoring an immediate pullout, according to State Department polling results obtained by The Washington Post.

Another new poll, scheduled to be released on Wednesday by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, found that 71 percent of Iraqis questioned want the Iraqi government to ask foreign forces to depart within a year. By large margins, though, Iraqis believed that the U.S. government would refuse the request, with 77 percent of those polled saying the United States intends to keep permanent military bases in the country.

The stark assessments, among the most negative attitudes toward U.S.-led forces since they invaded Iraq in 2003, contrast sharply with views expressed by the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Last week at the United Nations, President Jalal Talabani said coalition troops should remain in the country until Iraqi security forces are "capable of putting an end to terrorism and maintaining stability and security."...

***

"The very fact that there is such a low support for American forces has to do with the American failure to do basically anything for Iraqis," said Mansoor Moaddel, a professor of sociology at Eastern Michigan University, who commissioned a poll earlier this year that also found widespread support for a withdrawal. "It's part of human nature. People respect authority and power. But the U.S. so far has been unable to establish any real authority."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092601721.html

[Erika]

1. Duh..Only W's corporate Iraqi puppets want us there n/t

[INDIA]

16. And 95% of the Senate apparently.

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. Is this the October Surprise?

Does this give Bush the "out" that he & the GOP are desperately looking for?

[Phredicles]

3. Most Iraqis want us out. Most Americans want us out.

Do ya think everybody is trying to tell you something, Stay The Course Boy?

[struggle4progress]

4. This is nothing new.

A world public opinion poll conducted in January 06 produced similar results; see http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/165.php?nid=&id=&pnt=165&lb=hmpg1


And here's a bit from the Project on Defense Alternatives in February 05:

1. When Should Forces Leave?

... March-April 2004: 57 percent, "leave immediately"; 36 percent, "stay longer". (Gallup) ..

June 2004: 53 percent say leave now or "within a few months" or "until an Interim Government is in place" or "in six months to a year"; 33.5 percent allow "more than one year" or "until permanent government is in place"; 13.6 percent, even longer if necessary. (Oxford Research International) ...

January 2005: 82 percent of Sunni Arabs and 69 percent of Shiites favor US withdrawal "either immediately or after an elected government is in place." (Zogby) ...

http://www.comw.org/pda/0501br17append.html


Here's a nice piece from The Nation in 05:

article | posted October 11, 2005 (web only)
What Iraqis Really Think About the Occupation
Tom Hayden

... §  In mid-September of this year, the eighteen-member National Sovereignty Committee in the US-sponsored Iraqi parliament issued a unanimous report calling for the end of occupation.

§  In June, more than 100 members of the same parliament, or more than one-third, signed a letter calling for "the departure of the occupation." They criticized their regime for bypassing parliament in obtaining an extension of authority from the United Nations Security Council ...

§  In 2004, twenty Iraqi political parties formed a National Foundation Congress to become a public voice for withdrawal. In May 2005 it held a second Congress, releasing a three-point platform demanding a withdrawal timetable, an interim international peacekeeping force, and internationally supervised elections ...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051024/hayden

[LibDemAlways]

5. The Bush Crime Family neither knows nor cares what

the Iraqis want. What they want is the oil, and they're not planning to leave while there's a drop to be had.

[ptolle]

8. not really

Just one persons opinion- but it's been my contention since the beginning that this war has never been about iraqi oil. Oil as a commodity is dirty messy and a bitch to handle from production to market. Rather what this is about is using the dust raised as a screen for the insertion of a gigantic siphon tube from the US treasury to the corporate coffers of bushista cronies and repiglicon campaign contributors.Beyond my moral objection to war as the most wasteful, useless human enterprise ever conceived I object to the cynical use of young american men and women and innocent iraqis as nothing more than bargaining chips in the most horrendous get more obscenely rich scheme ever.I realize this is not an original thought, but I believe it's an accurate assessment of the bushista's motives and it's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[LibDemAlways]

9. Enriching their buddies' corporate coffers was no doubt an

important consideration and a prime motive. The oil is important, too, though. The original name for this clusterfuck was Operation Iraqi Liberation - but that was too obvious and quickly changed.

[autorank]

6. That would be the 50% who think it's OK to suicide bomb our soldiers.

That's always an indicator you want someone to leave your country, you're ready to blow them up.

The armed services and the guard have been asked to do an impossible job. Just think how it would be occupying the states of California and Texas with 120,000 troops. Give me a break, they never had a chance.

This is the ace card...they want us out. Give thlem a fair election and we'll be asked to elave. How about that!

[YankeyMCC]

7. But it's not 'actual' democracy bushco want there

just the superficial appearance of it...you know like they're creating here.

[Barrett808]

10. Operation Together Forward has really won some hearts in Baghdad

Or not.

[tabasco]

11. How dare the Iraqis think they have control of their country???

Emperor Bush says the troops will stay forever!!

(or until the "war on terror" is won which will be never)

[civildisoBDence]

12. I'll bet that when we LEAVE, they'll shower us with candy and flowers

Here's a radical idea: let them vote in a referendum whether they want us out or not. You know, DUUUUUUHbya, democratically.

Newsprism

[Lone_Star_Dem]

13. Who cares what they think

They're acting as if this war and subsequent occupation has been breeding terrorist and destabilizing their country or something. Sheesh, the lack of gratitude from those people! :sarcasm:

[Nickster]

14. What? You Iraqis think you live in a sovereign country or something? n/t

[ClintonTyree]

15. In my best (or worst) George Bush voice..........

"Ya' see, that would send the wrong message to the terraists. That message would be that the United States will cut and run from a fight, that we don't have the resolve to complete our mission. 9/11 taught us that we have to take the fight to the terraists, that we have to fight them there so we don't have to fight them here."

"In conclusion, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11." :puke:

[twaddler01]

17. I LOVE seeing this published. K&R

Let everyone who's "in the dark" know the real truth. They hate us and they want us out....do you see us leaving though? :shrug:

Maybe a little closer to November...

[Anakin Skywalker]

18. WHAT? They Don't Want Their Precious McFreedom?

This must cause the neo-CONs' jaws to drop, eh?