US public opinion on Iraq
I'm writing a column for Al-Hayat today. About US politics, attitudes to Iraq (maybe), that kind of thing.
I just found this web-page, from The Polling Report, Inc., which looks fairly useful. It aggregates data from a number of opinion-polling firms on US public attitudes on Iraq-related issues.
I find all the info presented there really interesting-- both the results of recent "in-depth" surveys, such as are found toward the bottom of the page, and the time-series data presented at the top.
For example, from the top, here's the CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, conducted April 1-2, 2005:
- "Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the situation in Iraq?"
Approve: 43%; Disapprove: 54%; Unsure: 3%.
(And you thought the election in Iraq was about Iraqi politics?? Hah!)
But his approval ratings on Iraq are not yet back down to where they were in May and June last year (41%). That was in the immediate aftermath of both the messy and widespread battles of April 2004 and the revelations about the tortures in Abu Ghraib.
The absolute high-point for Bush's approval rating regarding his handling of Iraq came-- not surprisingly-- in April 2003: 76% approval.
Okay, I need to go look at more polls on other issues, too. But that page certainly looked worth bookmarking for future reference.
Relevant to the point about what are U.S. attitudes about Iraq, I was listening to NPR on the way to work this morning and they reported the recent bombing. Ok, so that would be good, if US media occasionally reported the ongoing violence. But the killer was the line inserted in the radio report (which doesn't appear textually on their web page) that this bombing reflects a change after a "lull in the violence" since the January election.
Un-freaking-believable. You'd think the NPR reported assigned to Iraq could at least look over at Informed Comment (Juan Cole) on a daily basis if they were too lazy to actually read the news in Iraq.
It's simply disgusting that they would report a lull in their reporting of the violence as a lull in the violence with no basis in fact. As if anybody paying attention needed any more evidence about why the U.S. is insufficiently upset about the situation in Iraq.
And doubly annoying is that this is NPR. If anybody is supposed to affect the so-called liberal bias it's them. More and more, they seem to have given up even being factual, much less even exhibiting any interest in reporting on issues that might be important to progressives.
Americans are sophisticated enough to realize that Iraq will not be stabilized overnight...but elected Iraqi leaders are increasingly taking responsibility for their own security...they now need to encourage more Sunnis to join the political process so that they don't feel marginalized...but, no, whatever NPR reports or doesn't report, few Americans are "insufficiently upset" with the beheaders/suicide bombers/kidnappers... whether they be foreign Jihadists, Baath restorationists or common criminals.
Front page of the NYT had a picture of yesterday's bombing in Baghdad that killed 19.
No where in the NYT this week did I find a report on the bombing of al Rummana village by US forces that killed 20. Six women, seven children, three old men.
Same for Washington Post, but no front page picture or story. Our American media is nearly useless.
Mr ? Hammurabi started his contribution by saying "Americans are sophisticated enough to realise that Iraq will not be stabalised overnight". What level of sophistication does that realisation require?
From that then he expects "Americans" to swallow his assertion that all that is required is a further level of sophistication that would allow them to be sufficiently upset with beheaders and suicide bombers and so guarantee the success of this ill-informed fiasco of a war.
Confucious said that when a leader resorted to war he had already lost."A leader is elected to govern,not to kill".
Confucious was sophisticated.
lake powell
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