MOD poll - 82 per cent of Iraqis "strongly opposed" to occupation
Sean Rayment | 23.10.2005 09:55 | Anti-militarism
A survey conducted by an Iraqi university team on behalf of the UK's Ministry of Defence reveals huge opposition to the presence of British troops and widespread support for attacks on them.
Brief summary of findings, more at the link -
• Forty-five per cent of Iraqis believe attacks against British and American troops are justified - rising to 65 per cent in the British-controlled Maysan province;
• 82 per cent are "strongly opposed" to the presence of coalition troops;
• less than one per cent of the population believes coalition forces are responsible for any improvement in security;
• 67 per cent of Iraqis feel less secure because of the occupation;
• 43 per cent of Iraqis believe conditions for peace and stability have worsened;
• 72 per cent do not have confidence in the multi-national forces.
http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/23/wirq23.xml
• Forty-five per cent of Iraqis believe attacks against British and American troops are justified - rising to 65 per cent in the British-controlled Maysan province;
• 82 per cent are "strongly opposed" to the presence of coalition troops;
• less than one per cent of the population believes coalition forces are responsible for any improvement in security;
• 67 per cent of Iraqis feel less secure because of the occupation;
• 43 per cent of Iraqis believe conditions for peace and stability have worsened;
• 72 per cent do not have confidence in the multi-national forces.

Sean Rayment
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
Coalition forces are only still in Iraq to counter the insurgency!
24.10.2005 08:48
Observer
Re: Coalition forces are only still in Iraq to counter the insurgency!
24.10.2005 12:05
Your comment seems to suggest that just by reporting a poll showing Iraqi opposition to the presence of foreign soldiers on their land the reporter is expressing the opinion that all troops should withdraw no matter what the consequences. The reporter expresses no opinion at all on this matter.
Your sort of comment is a typical example of the mentality of `the right', confronted with uncomfortable information that threatens to make your position untenable you attempt to get people to shut up and to suppress the information by taking some spurious moral high ground. Hence you quickly end up saying `Is that what you want, a bloodbath?'
Your comments `Iraq is now ruled by its own democractic government' and `If the coalition troops left Iraq now, there would be an abosulte bloodbath' are debateable at best. The presence of US and UK troops is responsible for most (at least two thirds) of the civilian casualties in Iraq (in fact the US is killing more people than would likely die in any civil war, around 40,000 a year, see the Lancet study) and is escalating, not holding back, the threat of an all-out civil war in Iraq. As long as people like al-Zarqawi can call on opposition to the brutal practices (killing, imprisonment, torture, destruction of homes) of the occupation to give credit to their cause they will be able to generate new recruits for their holy war against the Shia, increasing the chance of an Iraqi-on-Iraqi civil war, and US policies such as hiring Shia troops to carry out some of the occupations dirty work (such as destroying homes) does not help.
Suicide bombings never continue after the withdrawal of an occupying power. The US and UK troops need to get out of Iraq before it's too late and a civil war becomes invevitable.
chombee
More than a brief summary
27.10.2005 08:57
M