Sep 27 2006
Two Polls For Dems To Cheer
If the Democrats want to crow about our defeats, two polls are out to warm the dark cockles of their cold hearts. First is a Gallup poll putting more blame on Bush than Clinton for getting Bin Laden (though I assume that doesn’t equate to who had more chances to prevent 9-11). The second is a set of polls coming out of Iraq showing vast majorities want the US led coalition out of Iraq. While this is not necessarily news (the Iraquis have always wanted their country back) it is interesting that Sunni calls for our exit have been falling off while Kurd support for our presence remains. The Sunni’s know we are the defenders of fair practices in the country. I am not surprised they are re-assessing our departure. The Shia may be confident they can take on the job of managing the country. So while the Dems will spin this as a reason to retreat, we still need to make sure we do not depart too soon and allow Al Qaeda to win Iraq over. As usual, everything is in the eye of the beholder and Dems and the liberal media enablers have decided to go for broke that America is ready to surrender to the challenge of terrorism. I happen to think they are wrong and so many are turned off by this opportunistic retreat that all measurements of the electorate are moot. But then again I may be whistling past the graveyard.
AJ: both of these polls are bogus, because neither one means, below the surface, what they’ll be spun to mean, by the MSM and the Lefitsts!
The Gallup Poll especially, is a fallacy, the way it’s being reported; in fact, the way the question is phrased, I’m surprised that Bush did as “good” as he did!
The question does NOT ask: who is more responsible for 9/11, who let bin Laden escape justice for 8 years, who is more to blame for allowing bin Laden free rein for 8 years, etc.
It clearly asks, in the Present Tense, meaning NOW, who is more responsible for Bin Laden not being captured!
Well, if you consider the fact, that even though bin Laden declared war on us in 1992, and half a dozen of his attacks against us went essentially unaswered by the Clinton Admistration; that fact is, the reason that bin Laden is not captured, NOW, IS the fault/responsibility of the Bush Administration!
Bush delcared war on Al Qaeda, invaded Afghanistan, and bin Laden has been on the loose ever since! That’s a cold, hard fact, and the question doesn’t give the respondents, any leeway to answer otherwise!
So, it’s no wonder, it has the result that it does; again, I’m surprised that Bush did as well as he did; the question, the way it’s phrased, could really only demand that Bush be blamed!
As for the Iraqi poll; this one is a reflection of wishful thinking, on the part of Iraqis, not their true feelings!
They’re getting attacked, on a daily basis, by the Jihadis, and blown-up and murdered, left and right!
Muslims, if anything desire STABILITY, and sameness, they are not used to dealing with instability, and unexpectedness; it upsets their worldview, that everythign is pre-ordained by Allah!
They’re HOPING, that if we leave tomorrow, all the killing and bombing, will go away, and everything can go back to what it was like with Saddam; i.e., he was a BAD guy, but at least he was our bad guy, and we didn’t have to deal with Beheadings and Homicide bombers on the way to the market!
In that sense, the average person in the streets, asked this question, HAS to answer the way they did!
Tellingly, the Iraqi leaders, see the BIG picture, and do not buy into it; and the Kurds know, they’d be in trouble if we left; the Sunnis are finally figuring out, that they’re support for the Jihadis, leaves them VERY exposed to the Shi’ites/Iran, IF we leave, and the Shi’ite street, just wants to be able to go to the market on any given day, without getting killed.
It’s understandable, predicable, and human nature; it doesn’t mean, what it ill be spun by the media to mean.
Dale,
Not ready to disagree with you on your comments.
AJStrata
A thorough “fisking” of the Iraqi survey and WaPo’s corresponding coverage seems to be in order here. For instance:
Paragraph 8: “The Program on International Policy Attitudes poll… found that support among Sunni Muslims for a withdrawal of all U.S.-led forces within six months dropped to 57 percent in September from 83 percent in January.”
Analysis: Support for a military withdrawal *dropped* among Sunni Muslims in September??? Then shouldn’t the WaPo’s headline for the piece be: “”Sunni Muslim Support for Coaltion Presence Increasing” or even “Sunni Oppostion to US Forces Waning”? No, of course not, this is the Washington Post, after all.
Paragraph 12: “Matthew Warshaw, a senior research manager at D3 Systems, which helped conduct the poll, said he didn’t think Iraqis were any less likely to share their true opinions with pollsters than Americans. ‘It’s a concern you run up against in Iowa or in Iraq,’ he said. ‘But for the most part we’re asking questions that people want to give answers to. People want to have their voice heard.’
Analysis: So according to Mr. Warshaw, Iraqis feel as free Iowans when it comes to speaking their minds? But then in the very next paragraph WaPo states: “The greatest risk, he said, was the safety of the interviewers. Two pollsters for another Iraqi firm were recently killed *because of their work*.” (Emphasis mine.)
Ah, so people are free to speak their own opinions in Iraq. They only fear for their lives when they ask *other* Iraqis for their opinions. Yep, just like in Iowa.
And out of curiosity, do Iraqi pollsters wear retro-glowing disco jackets when going house-to-house, perhaps with propeller caps atop their heads while carrying flashing billboard signs saying “I’m a pollster and therefore an infidel collaborator. Shoot me”? How does simply walking around, visiting people in their homes, and asking them simple questions put you on the insurgent hit list? Especially when the answers respondents are giving you are supposedly *anti-Coalition* rather than *pro-Coalition*? If you’re spreading propoganda that most Iraqis hate Americans and want them to leave, aren’t you doing the jihadis a favor?
Oh, and one last point about those Iowans… I mean those Iraqis. If I saw a pair of pollsters murdered outside my house by insurgents for doing… I dunno, whatever… would that make me *more* or *less* likely to express my true opinions the next time another pollster comes around? Just a thought.
Paragraph 15: “The director of another Iraqi polling firm, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared being killed…”
Analysis: See above.
Paragraph 15: “Eight-five percent of Sunnis in that poll supported an immediate withdrawal, a number virtually unchanged in the past two years, *except for the two months after the Samarra bombing, when the number fell to about 70 percent*, the poll director said. (Emphasis mine.)
Analysis: Sunni support for withdrawal went *down* after the Samarra bombing? Sunnis were more likely to favor a US-led military presence as a result of the mosque bombing? Boy, the MSM sure missed that headline, didn’t it? No wonder Iraqi pollsters have become virtual walking bull’s-eyes.
The rest of the article details the primary motivation for distrust among Iraqis: they feel we’re not doing *enough*. They want the US/Coalition to demonstrate stronger authority in Iraq. Because we supposedly haven’t demonstated this commitment (according to those interviewed) Iraqis believe we are deliberately exploiting their internal problems for our own selfish ends. But again, if the WaPo headline was “Iraqis Polled Want Coalition to Do More”, well, then, there probably wouldn’t be an article, much less a headline.
Now as for the poll itself, correct me if I’m wrong, but it appears that nowhere in the article does it state whether those polls were representative of Iraq’s population as a whole. Recall that approximately 50% of Iraqis live outside the Sunni Triangle, and this percentage is likely to increase as more and more Iraqis flee Al-Anbar, Ninevah, and the other provinces that remain insurgent hotbeds. So were 50% of those responding to the surveys from the outlying provinces? The article doesn’t say.
It is all in how you ask the question. I am sure the Iraqis wish we could leave, so do we. But no one in a position of authority is asking the US to leave right now. I wonder if you ask this question of the people of New Orleans what they would say? Do you want the National Guard to patrol your streets for ever?
PS: do not forget “TAQIYYAH” when dealing with the Iraqis!
Especially the Shia; that’s where Muslims are taught from birth, to LIE, especially to Infidels!
Bascially tell them what you think they want to hear!
Go to “Wiki” and search for it, it’s an eye opening experience!
DubiousD – sharp analysis!
As usual, good comments all.
At least Strata had the integrity to publish the polls I had referred to a week ago, and was ruidely told they must have been insurgent-sponsored.
Commenters on the site again refuse to accept the reality that 90% of the insurgency is somposed of native Sunni nationalists, religious and secular, not foreign Al Qaeda (and of a sprinkling of Shia tribes,also,
obviously not al Qaeda.)
These can deal better with foreign jihadists after the US leaves, than can the US troops.
And Terrye doesn’t understand yet, those living in the safety of the Green Zone are marked men when the US leaves,giving them
the best motives in the world for being among the decided minority
of Iraqis who wish the US to stay.
Ken:
I understand that this socalled poll was done somewhere in Iraq and I have no idea who did these polls or who they ask or if those people were afraid to answer openly or if they all lived in Sadr City or what… and I also understand it is 6 weeks before an election and so I take it with a grain of salt.
Now if the people of Iraq want us to leave, then they need to step up and take charge orf their security and then the violence will be down and we can leave. It is up to them.
And most of the violence in Iraq is happening within 40 miles of Baghdad, that means there are entire provinces outside the Green Zone that are secure.
I do know that other polls put security and electricity top of the lists of things they are concerned about and Americans leaving on the bottom of the list. And I also know that polls put their approval rating of their government well into majorities along with a a majority showing optimism of the future. So I guess it depends on your perspective.
The MSM Twisting Another Iraqi Poll…
Kinda funny how the MSM chose to put up a headline like this:
Poll: Iraqis back attacks on U.S. troops
and
Most Iraqis Favor Immediate U.S. Pullout, Polls Show
and even this one from the polling company itself:
Most Iraqis Want US Troops Out Within a …
Flopping Aces has some interesting stuff from the poll, AlQaida is polling with about 95% disaproval rating.
And something like 46% of the population thinks the Iraqi military will still need foreign help in 6 months. I love it when a poll contradicts itself.
Terrye
Ever consider “foreign help” might not mean US troop “help?”
And that Baghdad represents perhaps 70% of the strategic core of Iraq, which is why the insurgency has chosen to focus there?
And that a lessened degree of violence does not mean “secure”
which only one province in Iraq is so rated by the military
after three and a half years.