RE: [casi] Opinion polls

["Muhamed Ali" <Muhamed.Ali@DELETETHISHackney.gov.uk>]

Dear colleagues,
                 How come "occupation" allows you to visit Iraq, set up
shop, or is it political party headquarters, criticise it LEFT, right
and centre in your bulletins and leave it unscathed when you yearn for
your creature comforts back in the ivory tower of the imperialist
motherland ?
Could you in your wildest dream have done that during the previous 34
years of "not occupied" Iraq and why didn't you? It is precisely because
34 years of occupation by Saddam's fascist dictatorship has ended that
facilitated the return of thousands of exiled Iraqis to their homeland.
Not only the sadist Saddam's apologists, loony leftists, but also some
of his victims are missing him already. The latter are psychological
masachists displaying withdrawal symptoms of love-hate syndrome.
The Iraqi people, regardless of their political views, their
reservations about the means used and by whom to achieve this, are very
grateful for this basic right to be able to visit their country and
leave whenever they want to. Incidentally, from now on, those
expatriates can keep their dual nationalities without forfeiting their
Iraqi nationality. Moreover, those still in Iraq can use mobile phones,
satellite TV dishes and criticise their rulers without fear of loosing
their ear, tongue or even head. Incidentally, even a personal manual
typewriter was banned under the rulers of "Pre- occupation". Good
riddance dictatorship. Welcome freedom, long time no see ! 34 years in
the case of our ultra-left Iraqis.
Regards,
        Muhamad
-----Original Message-----
From: John Smith [mailto:johncsmith@btinternet.com]
Sent: 23 September 2003 01:02
To: Daniel O'Huiginn; Peter Brooke
Cc: casi
Subject: Re: [casi] Opinion polls

Johann Hari/Iraq Prospect Organisation's pro-imperialist propaganda
piece in
18 September 'Independent' was refuted by this letter printed in the
same
paper on the 20th:

Sir: Johann Hari is still doing his best to justify his support for the
war
on Iraq.
I too returned to Iraq to see for myself after 34 years in exile. But I
arrived at conclusions contrary to those of Mr Hari and his Iraqi
informants. He is happy to quote his informants' nonsense that "even
after
liberation, they [the Iraqi people] couldn't understand that they were
free;
they didn't understand what it meant." This I presume is his answer to
the
plain fact that the Iraqi people refused to shower the invaders with
flowers.
I talked with scores of people in Baghdad and, with only two exceptions,
they opposed the US occupation and regarded it as the US "master"
(ussta)
replacing the "apprentice" (sani). For it is almost universally believed
in
Iraq, even among some supporters of the invasion, that the US was the
power
that not only backed Saddam's tyranny and armed him with WMD, but worked
for
decades to keep him in power. Saddam's old right-wing friends, Rumsfeld
and
co, are recruiting Saddam's security men and are prepared to derench
Iraq in
new bloodbaths precisely to stop its people from achieving democracy and
true liberation.  (signed: Sami Ramadani, Senior lecturer, Dept of
Applied
Social Sciences, London Metropolitan University)


As for opinion polls.... how do you capture something as complex and
contradictory as human consciousness, hopes, and emotions, in a land
where
the imperialist devil runs amok, putting the population in greater peril
than they have ever been? Are we so unsure of ourselves that we can be
swayed by pollsters who think that they can measure minds in the same
way
that fascists once measured craniums? The Zogby International opinion
poll
has provided the material for a plethora of pro-occupation articles in
newspapers in the US and UK. It is interesting, therefore, to read how
the
Financial Times reported the same poll:


Opinion poll underlines Iraqi distrust of America

By Guy Dinmore in Washington

Financial Times/September 11 2003
Braving bullets, arrests and hot pursuit while carrying out the first
scientific survey of Iraqi public opinion, pollsters commissioned by a
conservative US think-tank have discovered that most Iraqis do not trust
Americans and want to be left alone.
John Zogby, president of Zogby International, which completed the poll
last
month, summed up the findings yesterday, saying that, like most Arabs,
Iraqis want to "control their own destiny", without the intervention of
outside forces, and are confident in their own ability.
"Now that tyranny is over," he said, "it is time to move forward but not
as
a colony."
In that sense Iraqis broadly agree, but for different reasons, with the
Bush
administration's stated goal of handing over power and getting out as
soon
as possible.
Commissioned by the American Enterprise Institute, the pollsters sought
to
survey a representative cross-section of Iraqi society by going to four
cities: Mosul and Kirkuk in the north, Ramadi in the mostly anti-US
Sunni
area of central Iraq, and Basra in the Shia south. A total of 600 people
were interviewed in public places.
In Ramadi the pollsters were caught in crossfire in an ambush of US
forces.
One was arrested by Kurds in the north, while others were chased by car.
In
Basra some were detained for 24 hours.
Asked if the US and UK should help make sure a fair government is set up
in
Iraq, or if the Iraqis should work this out themselves, 31.5 per cent
wanted
help while 58.5 per cent did not.
Some 38.2 per cent agreed that democracy could work well in Iraq, while
50.2
per cent agreed with the statement that "democracy is a western way of
doing
things and it will not work here".
Asked whether in the next five years the US would "help" Iraq, 35.3 per
cent
said yes while 50 per cent said the US would "hurt" Iraq. Asked the same
of
the UN, the figures were almost reversed, with 50.2 per cent saying it
would
 help and 18.5 per cent the opposite.
Reguarding US and British troops, some 31 per cent wanted them to leave
in
six months and a total of 65.5 per cent in a year. Some 25 per cent said
they should stay two years or more.
Interviewees were given a list of five countries they would like to
model
Iraq after.
A total of 36 per cent chose the four Middle Eastern countries listed
(16
per cent for Saudi Arabia, 11 per cent for Syria, 6.5 per cent for Egypt
and
2.8 per cent for Iran) while 21.5 per cent settled for the US, the only
western country listed.
Seven out of 10 Iraqis think their country and their personal lives will
be
better five years from now.

****************



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