Does Mike Castle know what the Iraqis want?
Mike Castle speaks on behalf of the Iraqis all the time, but does he know what they want to happen?
It is a simple question, what do the Iraqis want? But Mike Castle is so great and all knowing he doesn’t bother to ask.
Well World Public Opinion asked.
80% believe the US plans to build perminent bases
70% Desire a timeline for US withdraw
67% Say Day to day security of average Iraqis will improve when US withdraws
73% Say factions would cooperate after US withdraw
47% Approve of attacks on US untill withdraw
Now we have a buch of Republicans like Mike Castle saying that if we left there would be “chaos” – funny how they did not give a flying fuck about the Iraqis when they voted for Bush’s vanity war and now they are all about the poor Iraqis.
If he wants to help the Iraqis, maybe he should start by listening to them.
From the same poll:
64% say Iraq is headed in the right direction.
66% say the elections were free and fair.
68% say newly elected government will be the legitimate representative of the Iraqi people.
77% say that regardless of what has happened to them since, that ousting Saddam was worth it.
Also, the Sunnis are driving all the negatives in the poll, which makes sense. They had a good thing going under Saddam, and now they don’t.
Great now let’s listen to them and get out.
Also, the population is split fairly evenly into three categories on withdrawal of US troops:
withdraw in 6 months.
withdraw in 2 years; and
withdraw only when security situation calls for it.
So, 2/3 of Iraqis want the US to stay at least two more years or until the situation is stable.
SHHH…Don’t let Jase hear you say taht…his little eighth-grade brain can’t handle statistics like that…especially if it doesn’t fit with what he wants to hear!
Try this stat…70% of Iraqis desire a timeline.
0% of Delaware’s Congressmen desire a timeline.
You can spin away Dave. Fact is we should not have gone in (which you now admit) and we should be getting out (which you will admit sooner or later).
or even better…..try this…..if we had numbers like this…Bush and Cheney wouldn’t be here anymore. Those are significant numbers.
Dave, where did you get your numbers? I couldn’t find them on that link. I did find this however.
“Interestingly, there is a fair amount of consensus that if US-led troops were to withdraw, there would be substantial improvement in the performance of the Iraqi state. Overall, 73% think there will be an increase in the willingness of factions to cooperate in Parliament, including majorities of Kurds (62%), Sunnis (87%) and Shia (68%). Sixty-seven percent assume there will be an increase in the availability of public services such as electricity, schools and sanitation (Sunni 83%, Shia 63%, Kurds 54%). Sixty-four percent assume crime will go down (Sunnis 88%, Shia 66%), but here again the Kurds diverge, with 77% assuming crime will increase.”
Biden’s plan may be on the right track it appears……
I thought of this too late for the above.
It is obvious that we are not fighting for the Iraqi’s benefit, now isn’t it?
Kavips — you have to go in and read the actual poll, not the human interpretation of the poll. There’s a methodology link that you can click. You will quickly see that the bad news (or good news if you’re Jason) comes from extremely high Sunni dissatisfaction. Again, that’s understandable, since, as a minority, they had total power under Saddam.
Again, the big news here is:
66% say Iraq is headed in the right direction;
77% say it’s been worth it; and
2/3 want the US to stay two more years or until the situation is stable.
Also, all of the numbers you cite and most that Jason cite reference what Iraqis think will happen, when they couldn’t possibly know given all of the variables.
My numbers reference how they feel right now given what has already happened.
This thread has been overtaken by events. Dick Cheney says that surge is working so it must be true.
Look, Jase. You brought it up. Don’t try to distract people just because the numbers are a lot better than you let on
Dave,
And on the other hand since the Kurds and Shia were persecuted under Saddam they would now inflate your statistics so you are playing the same game as Jason. The basic facts are that this is a poll and you can pick and choose your statistics to fit your needs.
The best way to interpret the stats are to use answers where the distribution is significantly high across all groups. Such as 87% of Iraqi’s agreed with thier leaders (64% Kurd, 94% Sunni, and 90% Shia) when they called for a timetable for withdrawal of US forces. That would be unpatriotic in this country but just fine in the country we currently occupy. Another interesting stat for you (since you seem to love to distinguish between Sunni, Shia, and Kurd opinion for your rationale of the fact that Iraq is a great place to be today.) is that 43% of the Shia population surveyed have a mostly positive opinion of IRAN regarding thier involvement in IRAQ. If this is the case and you believe (as the president and his administration states) that IRAN is helping kill US troops then your argument that this data is skewed due to high Sunni dissatisfaction is technically true but only supported by the foundation that the Shia really appreciate the US efforts I think you are in a CATCH 22 because you are stating that the Iraqi’s are happy with our involvment but also happy supporting countries willing to kill and destroy our troops. So my question is whether you still stand by your numbers even though they are inflated by the SHIA population?
I would like to know who ‘did’ thses polls in the middle of a war torn country?
The Iraqi’s have little electricity so it can be assumed they don’t use computer polls. Telephone service, including cells, must be sub-par at this point. Surely, the people are not risking their lives by going to the market to take a poll.
Perhaps when U.S. troops are going door-to-door they are administering the poll(s) while dodging bullets.
Who gives and who takes these polls? I suspect it’s all propaganda (no kidding).
the poles take the polls, who else would be dumb enough
rim shot
zing!
The fact that Shia Muslims would voice support for Iran should not be news to anyone. In fact, 43% is a strikingly low support number for Shia Muslims regarding Iran.
Dave,
Wow, what a great way to turn around the question and avoid answering whether you still stand by the stats even though they are inflated by a population that supports a country that works towards killing Americans. Where have I seen this type of response before? Oh, that’s right, the current administration is completely built on those types of non-responses. Thanks for that validation.
Phantom: Michael said it best.
“The basic facts are that this is a poll and you can pick and choose your statistics to fit your needs.”
So my question is whether you still stand by your numbers even though they are inflated by the SHIA population?
so are you going to ANSWER THE QUESTION DAVE?
now that he picked you apart? or NOT?
pathetic.
Who picked who apart?
The Shia and Kurdish population pull the poll in one direction and the Sunnis pull in another direction.
So, yes, jackass, I stand by the numbers.
Answer this question:
Why do so many Iraqis say it was worth it and that the country is headed in the right direction?
please site the source that says SO MANY Iraqi’s say it is worth it. Make sure it is recent too…
“so many”, way to quantify.
You don’t have to call me a jackass just b/c I asked you to actually answer a question. I know it is hard for politicians to answer the questions posed to them so I don’t blame you for getting upset.
Dave,
That is probably because now the majority Shia are in charge and the Kurds can do whatever they want within Iraq now. So since they have the freedom to do what they want (ethnic cleansing, civil war, takeover cities like Kirkuk) they would believe that it was worth it and it is headed in the right direction, thier direction. Right in conjunction with Iran’s objective of helping to kill American troops. So since the right direction includes the killing of our troops it would appear that your citing those stats would, in essence, agree that killing our troops is the right direction. Glad to have that cleared up because that seems to be the Republican mantra right up there with Cheney and Bush. We are for the troops getting slaughtered so that Iraq can be moving in the “right direction” towards Iran.
DV — The source is in the poll that was the subject of the post, moron. And you “cite” a source. You don’t “site” it.
Phantom — Yes. That’s exactly how I feel. You nailed me on that one. Please.
I think Phantom has gone over the little head of Dave on this one.
I’m sure he has your mind all in a pretzel right now.
Dave,
Good to know. Doesn’t it feel better to just come out and tell the truth. I know it is a foreign concept but sometimes it is just so relieving. Glad to have helped! 🙂