Associated Press spins the news

NOTE: I've seen Ms. Jelinek's story posted on this board. I hope this article puts an end to the doubts about what the Iraqis think of the occupation.

EDIT - Well, at least I THOUGHT I saw it...

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We've said it many times, but the news agencies are the most pervasive sources of liberal bias in the American media. The Associated Press is very bad; this article by Pauline Jelinek, titled "U.S. Response in Iraq May Inspire Enemies," illustrates the point.

Jelinek is a lefty AP reporter who specializes in gloom and doom stories about Iraq and other fronts in the war on terror. Today's piece begins:


That, of course, is a fair enough point, and one that our military keeps constantly in mind. But Jelinek takes the point beyond any balance or sense of perspective:


Jelinek quotes Bob Kerrey's scolding of Condoleezza Rice, as though it were unimpeachably nonpartisan:


And she concludes by quoting a dire prediction that "if the situation in Iraq unravels, 'the U.S. military will be faced with its own version of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, where military action to suppress the insurgency creates more new insurgents ?- and an endless cycle of violence.'"

Note the ignorant assumption that Israel's policy of aggressively rooting out terrorists has been a failure. In fact, if our suppression of the terrorists in Iraq is as successful as Israel's suppression of the terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza, it will be cause for celebration. Bear in mind that Israel's problem is that terrorists live in such close proximity to their civilian population; terrorizing U.S. Marines is quite a different proposition from terrorizing kids in pizza parlors.

What I really want to focus on, however, is Jelinek's misuse of survey data. Central to her claim that the United States has failed to win over Iraq's population is this statement: "[W]hile recent surveys show a majority of Iraqis think life is better than a year ago, the majority still oppose having foreign forces on their soil ?- 51 percent against, to 39 percent in favor."

Jelinek is here perpetuating a myth that has taken on a life of its own in the press. She refers to the survey done in February 2004 by Oxford Research International; I can't find a live link to it, but you can access it in seconds by Googling "iraqi opinion survey." The question she relies on is number 26: "Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose the presence of Coalition Forces in Iraq?" If you add up the "support" and "oppose" totals, they do indeed come to 39% and 51% respectively.

But stopping here creates the misleading impression that all most Iraqis want is for the Americans to go home. That is, in fact, the opposite of what the Oxford survey found. Question No. 29 asked, "How long do you think U.S. and other Coalition Forces should remain in Iraq?" Only 15% responded that they should leave now. Fully 65% said that the troops should remain for at least six months, or until an Iraqi government is in place (the most popular answer at 36%).

The Oxford survey contains a great deal of additional information that is directly relevant to Ms. Jelinek's thesis, such as:

*How are things going in your life now? Good: 70% Bad: 30%

*Do you expect things to be better or worse a year from now? Better: 71% Worse: 7%

*Was it right or wrong for coalition forces to invade Iraq? Right: 48% Wrong: 39%

*Which countries or organizations should play a role in rebuilding Iraq? USA: 20% France: 6% UN: 4%

*Which leader do you trust the most? Moqtada Al Sadr: 0.6%

*What type of government do you want? Democracy: 49% Strong leader: 28% Islamic state: 21%

*What do you think about attacks on coalition forces? Acceptable: 17% Unacceptable: 78%

There is a lot there to ponder, as battles rage tonight in Iraq. Pauline Jelinek knows about the Oxford survey; I doubt that she's read it, however. She probably just repeated the only statistic from the survey that she's seen in the press--thereby perpetuating the lazy pessimism of the left.

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