Over the course of the Iraq War, many U.S. media outlets have managed to misconstrue Iraqi public opinion about the presence of U.S. troops. As early as 2004, as FAIR (6/2/04) pointed out, research showed that the Iraqi public wanted U.S. troops out:
According to a new poll from the Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies, which is partly funded by the State Department and has coordinated its work with the Coalition Provisional Authority, more than half of all Iraqis–including the Kurds–want an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces, up from 17 percent last October.
But prominent media outlets didn’t want to believe this. As John Burns of the New York Times explained:
Opinion polls, including those commissioned by the American command, have long suggested that a majority of Iraqis would like American troops withdrawn, but another lesson to be drawn from Saddam Hussein’s years is that any attempt to measure opinion in Iraq is fatally skewed by intimidation. More often than not, people tell pollsters and reporters what they think is safe, not necessarily what they believe. My own experience, invariably, was that Iraqis I met who felt secure enough to speak with candor had an overwhelming desire to see American troops remain long enough to restore stability.
Turn to yesterday’s Times (9/11/11), and you saw this headline:
Many Iraqis Have Second Thoughts as U.S. Exit Nears
The article, by Michael Schmidt, doesn’t given any sense of a shift in the broad opposition to the U.S. occupation. Instead, it’s mostly an attempt—like others before it, documented in this piece in Extra! by Dahr Jamail—by the Times to convince readers that a series of anecdotes and interviews give a better measure of Iraqi opinion:
Though Iraqis have called for Americans to leave from the start of the occupation in 2003, the prospect of such a drastic drawdown, from the 48,000 troops here now, has revealed another side of the Iraqi psyche. This is a nation that distrusts itself, with little faith in the government’s own security forces or political leaders. It is as if people here never actually believed that the United States would leave, so all along demands for a pullout were never carefully weighed against the potential fallout.
So the “Iraqi psyche” doesn’t really trust Iraqis and never thought about what would happen in the event of a “drastic drawdown” of U.S. troops a mere eight years after the occupation began.
This article will draw little response from the bloggers here would be my guess.It is close to the truth.Something they are not that familiar with.Most here probably believe the Iraqis Hate the Americans and want them all to leave tonight.And off course that would be Bushes fault.
And of course Iraquis are happy with the total collapse of their agricultural system as well. Before the invasion they produced about 95% of their own food, now their once procuctive farms are salt flats and they import about 85% of their food while once productive farmers watch their children suffer from malnutrition while they seek non existent jobs in the growing urban slums. Not to worry, it has been a total bonanza for producers of GM foods in the US and Australia.
Iraqis want to keep American troops in their country about as much as the Israelites wanted to keep Assyrian troops in theirs when they were invaded and occupied.
Is there ANY possibility that our gov’t and media will ever stop the constant lies???
Obviously no one wants their country to be occupied not to mention destroyed ;
probably over 1 million Iragis killed, no count of the injured or ill, infrastructure destroyed ,etc.
What good has America wrought to those people? How can folks possibly believe that we are there for anything but nefarious motives.
Ding ding ding I KNEW IT! :) :) :)
Gee Mikie, I think we are all aware of the tactics used by the skinheads, nazis and tea baggers to avoid losing an argument.
Thanks for the illustration though.
Geom
And thanks for comparing the ideals of the “tea party” with Nazis and skinheads.That is something you libs are going to have to get over -when you HAND OVER power to us on a crisp Nov in the future.Try saying it.Tea party ,tea party.Not that hard.The new phrase for the left is fiscal pedifiles.Rape our children’s future.I will just stick with Dems.Try to rise out of the gutter there geom.
And who was having an argument?I just pointed out the blame ,and hate America first mentality here.So far…everyone here has agreed with me.
Incoherent troll is being incoherent
Incoherent fiscal pedophile is being incoherent
For god sakes, ‘Micheal E’, is there not a respondsible adult in your house? Have they not noticed that you are cutting class to hang out in a dank basement playing on the internet all day? Harvard graduate, my ass. Harvard graduates are educated people. They employ grammer properly, punctuation as well. And they can spell. The result of such an education is proper communication skills, verbal and written, it is second nature. Along with critical thinking and research skills. NONE of which has ever been demonstrated by your posts here. I am such a dope that I have engaged in time-consuming research on every claim you have presented as fact and NOTHING checks out. Nothing.
What I have found is word-for-word lifts from FOX ‘commentators.’ Licensed entertainers with no legal requirement to uphold journalistic standards. And your juvenile, pimpled ass dares to insult serious grownups engaged in the worthwhile effort to discuss important social issues. Despite the nitwit pre-adolescent response from you that this will no doubt garner, (you are consistent) the game is over. Get a hobby, go to school, get a job, if you can. It is long past the time when you should engage the world in an intelligent and useful manner. Or shut the hell up. Or keep babbling, hoping to dupe some sincere individual into response. No, better yet, accuse me of attacking tea partiers, or their ‘prinicples.’ Be clear son, I am attacking you. If the ‘tea party’ were in fact worth a teaspoon of warm spit, they would have a better spokesperson on this site than you. Because you cannot, you never have delivered the goods. You are, by internet-definition, a troll. That is; a device of diversion to throw a thread off track by introducing combative and nonsensical drivel.
You have never been in conversation with any of the highly placed, power-brokers that you claim. You would at least have to be able to string together a sentence in proper form to gain such access. And that you cannot manage on this simple blog with spellcheck.
Call me whatever names your infantile nature can divise. I am telling you that you are undone. Your unsavory ass has been on display here long enough. But, as you have proven yourself inpervious to logic and fact, I expect that you will likely continue. Knock yourself out, the jig is up. All that you can accomplish here is to further demonstrate that ‘micheal e’ is an ass.
“Does one feel revenge upon the flea that savages the ear in the night?Or understanding,that it is the little he earns for his sustenance?”
RM i wrote you a long reply.I then read it, and deleted it.Really why would i even address your rantings?I have had, and am having a miraculous life.I hope the same for you.
they are different letters. . thats the only difference i can see