Foxfyre wrote:A recent Gallup/USA Today poll face to face with more than 1700 Iraqis determined that a higher percentage of Iraqis approve of our action in Iraq than oppose it and an overwhelming percentage want us to stay for awhile now that we're there. These percentages are much higher among the Kurdish population.
A large percentage of Iraqis say they are better off because we came and a huge percentage believe they will be better off a year from now.
We have done a good thing.
I dunno about a Gallup/USA Today poll.
I
wrote here about an ABC News / ARD / BBC / NHK / Oxford Research International poll "among a random, representative sample of 2,737 Iraqis in face-to-face interviews across the country from Feb. 9-28." I think that might be the one you are talking about, perhaps USAToday took part in it too.
Basically it did say (almost) everything you say here. But some other stuff too, though.
Yes, it showed a large percentage of Iraqis saying they are better off than a year ago (not: "because we came") - though not much over a majority: 56%. And yes, it showed a huge percentage believing they will be better off a year from now (71%).
Also, it did show a higher percentage of Iraqis approving of the invasion than opposing it - 48% vs 39%. But that is indeed thanks to the Kurds, whom you already mention: among the majority population of Arab Iraqis, a plurality thinks the invasion was wrong (46% vs 40%). Furthermore, asked whether the invasion liberated or humiliated Iraq, 42% said it liberated Iraq and almost as many, 41%, said it "humiliated Iraq". Among the Arab Iraqis, only one in three (33%) considers the invasion to have been a liberation, and almost half (48%) says it was a humiliation. So results about how good a thing you have done are mixed, to say the least.
Finally, about that "overwhelming percentage [who] want us to stay for awhile now that we're there". It might be fair to first refer to the
main question here: do you support or oppose the presence of the coalition forces. 51% said it opposed their presence, 39% supported it. Among the Arab Iraqi majority that was 60% who wants the coalition troops out and 30% who wants them to stay.
But you are right on the conditionalising question on that - to
quote ABC: "that doesn't mean most want them withdrawn immediately, likely because of security concerns. Fifteen percent of Iraqis say the forces should leave the country now; by contrast, 36 percent say they should remain until a new government is in place; 18 percent, until security is restored."
Overall though, I think you painted a distinctly rosier (and more simplistic) picture than the numbers you invoke would justify.