Report attacks 'myth' of foreign fighters The US and the Iraqi government have overstated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq, "feeding the myth" that they are the backbone of the insurgency, an American thinktank says in a new report.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1576666,00.htmlU.S. Now Finds That Insurgents Are Mostly IraqisThe battle for the city of Fallujah is giving U.S. military commanders an increasingly clear picture of this country's insurgency, and it is the portrait of a home-grown uprising overwhelmingly dominated by Iraqis, not by foreign fighters.
Of the more than 1,000 men between the ages of 15 and 55 who were captured in intense fighting in the center of the insurgency over the past week, just 15 are confirmed foreign fighters, Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. ground commander in Iraq, said Monday.
American commanders said their best estimates of the proportion of foreigners among their enemy was about 5 percent.
http://middleeastinfo.org/article4833.html Insurgents Are Mostly Iraqis, US Military SaysThe insistence by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and many U.S. officials that foreign fighters are streaming into Iraq to battle American troops runs counter to the U.S. military's own assessment that the Iraqi insurgency remains primarily a home-grown problem.
"They say these guys are flowing across and fomenting all this violence. We don't think so," said a senior military official in Baghdad. "What's the main threat? It's internal."
U.S. military officials said the core of the insurgency in Iraq was — and always had been — Hussein's fiercest loyalists, who melted into Iraq's urban landscape when the war began in March 2003. During the succeeding months, they say, the insurgents' ranks have been bolstered by Iraqis who grew disillusioned with the U.S. failure to deliver basic services, jobs and reconstruction projects.
It is this expanding group, they say, that has given the insurgency its deadly power and which represents the biggest challenge to an Iraqi government trying to establish legitimacy countrywide.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0928-21.htm US, Britain holding 10,000 prisoners in Iraq350 foreigners are among about 10,000 detainees being held in US-run prisons in Iraq, Iraq's Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin Over says.
"US forces told us on December 23 that they are holding 353 foreign terrorists,"
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1273053.htm353. Out of 10,000. My own small town in Nowhere Texas has far more "non-Americans" than that.
Iraq battling more than 200,000 insurgents
Intelligence chief says most are former baathistshttp://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=11487Poll: Iraqis out of PatienceA USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in March concluded, “The insurgents...seem to be gaining broad acceptance, if not outright support. If the Kurds, who make up about 13 percent of the poll, are taken out of the equation,
more than half of Iraqis say killing U.S. troops can be justified in at least some cases.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-28-poll-cover_x.htmNationalism drives many insurgents as they fight U.S.But a wide range of interviews with Iraqis and U.S. officials here paints a starkly different portrait -- a growing, intensely nationalist resistance determined to remove U.S. forces and their Iraqi allies.
Iraqi politicians do not dispute that foreign fighters are in their country. Posho Ibrahim, Iraq's deputy justice minister, said in an interview this month that the U.S. military has about 100 accused foreign fighters in custody. But they do not see the foreigners as the driving force behind the resistance.
Sharif, who was among the exiled Iraqi opposition figures who initially supported the U.S. invasion, said the typical resistance fighter is a young man with a military background who opposes the occupation...
Wazan said the resistance is led by 20 to 30 armed groups across the country.
"This (insurgency) is a justified action for any people whose country is under occupation," he said.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/26/MNG659G46T1.DTLCoz contrary to bush & his Cabal's BULLSHIT, the Iraqi people NEVER wanted us invading their country in the first place and they want us to get the HELL OUT OF THEIR COUNTRY. And if we had a real media, Americans would know these FACTS.Kurdish leader shuns US move to oust Saddam http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,739916,00.htmlIraqis Oppose Bush's Warhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/antiwar/story/0,12809,907780,00.htmlPOLLS:February 2004: 33 percent want withdrawal within a year; 40 percent, withdrawal once an Iraqi government is in place; 27 percent, a longer or more open-ended stay. (Oxford Research International)
March-April 2004: 57 percent, "leave immediately"; 36 percent, "stay longer". (Gallup)
June 2004: 41 percent, "immediate withdrawal"; 45 percent, withdrawal after election of a permanent government; 10 percent, 2 years or longer. (Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society/CPA).
June 2004: 30 percent desire immediate withdrawal, 51 percent want withdrawal after a government is elected, 13 percent said that Coalition forces should remain until stability was achieved. (Iraq Centre for Research & Strategic Studies)
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)
February 2004:
56.3 percent of Iraqis somewhat or strongly oppose the presence of Coalition forces in Iraq. "Strongly oppose" versus "strongly support" is 2.5-to-1. (Oxford Research International)
March-April 2004: 58 percent say US forces have behaved very or fairly badly; 34 percent say US forces have behaved very or fairly well. The ratio between those saying "very bad" and those saying "very well": 3-to-1. (Gallup/CNN/USA Today)
March-April 2004: 30 percent say that attacks on US forces were somewhat or completely justified; another 22 percent said they were sometimes justified. (Gallup/CNN/USA Today)
May 2004: 87 percent express little or no confidence in US coalition forces; 92 percent view coalition forces as occupiers, rather than liberators or peace keepers. (Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society/CPA)
June 2004: 67 percent of Iraqis strongly or somewhat oppose the presence of Coalition troops; 30 percent support. (Iraq Centre for Research & Strategic Studies)
June 2004: 58 percent of Iraqis somewhat or strongly oppose the presence of Coalition forces in Iraq. Strongly oppose versus strongly support is 3-to-1. (Oxford Research International)
June 2004: 70 percent say Coalition troops are an occupying or exploiting force; 30 percent say a liberating or peacekeeping force. (Oxford Research International)
June 2004: Majority of Iraqis say invasion was wrong; Invasion of Iraq was absolutely right say 13.2 percent; somewhat right, 27.6 percent; somewhat wrong, 25.7 percent; absolutely wrong, 33.5 percent. (Oxford Research International)
March-April 2004: 46 percent say the US invasion has done more harm than good; 33 percent say more good. (Gallup)
March-April 2004: 42 percent say Iraq is better off today than before the invasion, 39 percent say worse, 17 percent say the same. (Gallup)
August 2004: 46 percent of Iraqis say their situation has improved since the fall of Hussein, 31 percent say it has grown worse, and 21 percent say it is unchanged. (International Republican Institute)
57% said the coalition should "leave immediately"...
Among respondents in Shi'ite and Sunni Arab areas-- that is, leaving out Kurdish respondents--the numbers favoring an immediate pullout were even higher: 61% to 30% among Shi'ites and 65% to 27% among Sunnis.
Referances for the above:
Press Release, Survey Finds Deep Divisions in Iraq; Sunni Arabs Overwhelmingly Reject Sunday Elections; Majority of Sunnis, Shiites Favor U.S. Withdrawal, New Abu Dhabi TV - Zogby Poll Reveals (Utica, NY: Zogby International, 28 January 2005), available at:
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=957 International Republican Institute polls: Survey of Iraqi Public Opinion, September 24 - October 4, 2004 (Washington DC: International Republican Institute, October 2004), available at:
http://www.iri.org/pub.asp?id=7676767887 ;Survey of Iraqi Public Opinion, July 24 - August 2, 2004 (Washington DC: International Republican Institute, August 2004), available at:
http://www.iri.org/pub.asp?id=7676767885 Oxford Research International polls: National Survey of Iraq, February 2004 (Oxford, UK: Oxford Research International); National Survey of Iraq, June 2004 (Oxford, UK: Oxford Research International); both available at:
http://www.oxfordresearch.com/publications.html Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society/CPA poll: Public Opinion in Iraq: First Poll Following Abu Ghraib Revelations 14-23 May 2004 (Baghdad: CPA, May 2004), available at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5217741/site/newsweek /
Gallup poll conducted with USA Today and CNN: Cesar G. Soriano and Steven Komarow, "Poll: Iraqis out of patience," USA Today, 28 April 2004; "Key findings: Nationwide survey of 3,500 Iraqis," USA Today, 28 April 2004, available at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-04-28-gallup-iraq-findings.htm . Also see: Richard Burkholder, Gallup Poll of Iraq: Liberated, Occupied, or in Limbo? (Princeton, NJ: Gallop Organization, 28 April 2004).
Juan Cole, "Spinning Iraqi Opinion at Taxpayer Expense," Antiwar.com, 25 October 2004, available at:
http://www.antiwar.com/cole/?articleid=3843 Robin Wright, "Religious Leaders Ahead in Iraq Poll; U.S.-Supported Government Is Losing Ground, Washington Post, 22 October 2004, p. 1;
Mark Turner, "80% of Iraqis want coalition troops out," Financial Times, 7 July 2004;
Michael Hirsh, "Grim Numbers," Newsweek, 16 June 2004;
John Lemke, "Poll: Security, unemployment major problems, UPI, 25 May 2004.
"Opinion Polls in Iraq," Iraqanalysis.org,
http://www.iraqanalysis.org/info/55 Iraq Index: Tracking Reconstruction and Security in Post-Saddam Iraq (Washington DC: Brookings Institution), section on public opinion polls; available at:
http://www.brookings.edu/iraqindex Frederick Barton and Bathsheba Crocker, project directors, Progress or Peril? Measuring Iraq's Reconstruction (Washington DC: CSIS, September 2004), available at:
http://www.csis.org/features/0410_progressperil.pdf And more polls:In Baghdad, where U.S. forces are concentrated, the numbers were highest of all: 75% favored an immediate pullout, with only 21% opposed.http://baltimorechronicle.com/060304Media.html Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies, which is partly funded by the State Department and has coordinated its work with the Coalition Provisional Authority,
more than half of all Iraqis-- including the Kurds-- want an immediate withdrawal of US forces...http://baltimorechronicle.com/060304Media.html The first survey of Iraqis sponsored by the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal shows that
most say they would feel safer if Coalition forces left immediately, without even waiting for elections scheduled for next year.
55% of Iraqis say they would feel safer if Coalition forces departed right away.http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5217874/site/newsweek /
2005:
Newsweek reports that
"Every major poll shows an ever-larger majority of Iraqis want the Americans to leave."http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6857145/site/newsweek /
YouGov poll in Iraq, July 2003;
-Three in four of Baghdad residents say the city is now more dangerous than when Saddam Hussein was in power.
-32 per cent say that everyday life is better now than it was a year ago. Twice as many say it is either just as bad (16 per cent) or actually worse (47 per cent).
-71% want power handed over within 12 months
-
Believed reason for bush's war; “to secure oil supplies” (47 per cent) and “to help Israel” (41 per cent). Just 23 per cent said US aim was “to liberate the people of Iraq”, while 7 per cent said “to protect Kuwait”.
The formal reason for going to war, “to find and destroy weapons of mass destruction” came last. Just 6 per cent think this was America’s and Britain’s main motive.
-Opinion of the people of Baghdad towards Americans, three months after they occupied their city; friendly (26 per cent), hostile (18 per cent), 50 per cent feel “neither friendly nor hostile”.
http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/07/week_3/16_poll.htmlIraqis Do Not Trust Americans, Says Poll -Asked if the US and UK should help make sure a fair government is set up in Iraq, or should the Iraqis work this out themselves, 31.5 per cent wanted help while 58.5 per cent did not.
-Some 38.2 per cent agreed that democracy could work well in Iraq, while 50.2 per cent agreed with the statement that "democracy is a western way of doing things and it will not work here".
-
Asked whether in the next five years the US would "help" Iraq, 35.3 per cent said yes while 50 per cent said the US would "hurt" Iraq. Asked the same of the UN, the figures were almost reversed, with 50.2 per cent saying it would help and 18.5 per cent the opposite.
-Reguarding US and British troops, some 31 per cent wanted them to leave in six months and a total of 65.5 per cent in a year. Some 25 per cent said they should stay two years or more.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0911-01.htm Iraqis, being human beings rather like most of us, DON'T LIKE their homes, their country, being INVADED and OCCUPIED, especially when they had been doing NOTHING WHATSOEVER to anyone. So STOP SPEWING the bushCabal bullshit!
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