Hi Michael D. Cummings; Re: "Interesting Carl, was this right after your prediction we would never invade Iraq and take out the Hussein regime?"
My underlying assumption was that Bush was too smart to get involved in an unwinnable war. I was wrong about how smart Bush was.
Re: "First of all, I never said there would be flag waving Iraqi's."
Sorry to distort your position.
Re: "Secondly, based on every survey done in Iraq since our occupation, the Iraqi's overwhelmingly want us to remain there, they now believe their future will improve because of our occupation."
Your impressions were obtained by way of a biased reading of the answers to somewhat biased questions, asked of a biased sample of Iraq. Read the truth, instead of the world through rove-tinted glasses:
Data Reveal Inaccuracies in Portrayal of Iraqis
Washington Post, September 29, 2003
Top Bush administration officials in the past weeks have been citing a pair of public opinion polls to demonstrate that Iraqis have a positive view of the U.S. occupation. But an examination of those polls indicates Iraqis have a less enthusiastic view than the administration has portrayed.
...
The poll also found that 29 percent of Baghdad residents had a favorable view of the United States, while 44 percent had a negative view. By comparison, 55 percent had a favorable view of France. Similarly, half of Baghdad residents had a negative view of President Bush, while 29 percent had a favorable view of him. In contrast, French President Jacques Chirac drew a 42 percent favorable rating.
Earlier, on Sept. 14, Vice President Cheney on NBC's "Meet the Press" discussed findings from a Zogby International poll of 600 Iraqis done in August in conjunction with American Enterprise magazine. He described the poll as "carefully done" and said it found "very positive news in it in terms of the numbers it shows with respect to the attitudes to what Americans have done."
...
But the poll also found that half of respondents said Western democracy would not work well in Iraq, while 40 percent said it would. Asked whether the United States would help or hurt Iraq over the next five years, 35 percent said the U.S. would help but half said it would hurt Iraq. Also, on the question of an Islamic government, the alternative offered was "or instead let all people practice their own religion," which implied that could not be done under the former.
washingtonpost.com
Iraq’s Mr. Popularity
Newsweek, Oct 6 2003 Issue
What is wrong with those Iraqis? The United States and Britain freed them from Saddam Hussein and, sure, the vast majority say that’s great: a poll released last week finds that 62 percent think liberty is worth the hardship. But they don’t much like their liberators. The same Gallup poll shows their preferred country by far is—get this—France. And their favorite leader? Jacques Chirac! The French president’s approval rating tops George W. Bush’s by 13 points in Baghdad. Tony Blair couldn’t get elected dogcatcher.
msnbc.com
Re: "Do you honestly believe that attitude was mirrored by the Vietnamese people in 1964/1965?"
The simple fact is that 10x as many Vietnamese died fighting for the South Vietnamese government as US soldiers died fighting there. To suggest that the Vietnamese people did not have a lot of guys who believed in the US is ridiculous. Maybe you haven't talked with any of the Vietnamese who came over here on boats.
The problem in Iraq is that while some percentage of the Iraqis want us to remain, approximately 0% of them are willing to risk their lives in combat to make the country safe for us. Just recently we took Iraqi officers into combat to find fedayeen, but it was made clear that the Iraqis were working for the enemy: "Faced with almost daily attacks, U.S. troops have been eager to hand over policing to Iraq’s new police force. But Monday’s raids raised serious questions about when the local force would be able to operate without major U.S. help. In one incident, Iraqi police officers spent five minutes trying to break down the door of a house with hammers. A U.S. soldier simply knocked out a pane of glass and reached inside to unlock the door. And some of the Iraqi police vehicles switched on their headlights during the nighttime operation despite U.S. instructions to drive with them off. #reply-19353369 The Iraqis aren't stupid. What they were doing was letting their buddies get away.
Our money can be used to pay Iraqis to put on a uniform, but it can't make them change what is in their hearts. That is something that money cannot do, no matter how much rich people may wish otherwise.
Re: "Oh, and by the way, the Iraqi people overwhelmingly welcomed our troops into their country, despite your attempts to rewrite history. ..."
This is a fantasy, but let's suppose it's true, LOL. Then the fact that they were big time lovers of us 4 months ago, but are now shooting at us at higher and higher levels would indicate that something must have gone badly wrong. The simple fact is that the security situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate:
hiciraq.org
Yeah, I know. You're probably too busy to take a look at the data. Okay. Here, I've charted it for you: #reply-19327931 Also see: Hi all; Security "incidents" in Iraq sets new record at 49 in UN's latest security update #reply-19350107
-- Carl |
