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[casi] Right, again




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Dear list

What fustrates us at the IPO is that we're always accussed of going out for our own personal 
interest, but poll after poll proves our opinion is always that of the vast majority of Iraqis. We 
were right about Iraqi support for the war. And now it looks like we're right about Iraqis wanting 
the US not to abandon them like they did in '91, since they believe that will allow Saddam or the 
Ba'athists to claw their way back. Not until things have stabilised and a propoer function 
government is in place should they leave.

If you look at the conference in London a couple of days ago done by MAB which compared US troops 
in Iraq to the Monguls - a view clearly not shared by the majority of Iraqis. Look at the antiwar 
march a few weeks ago, which called for an immediate end to the occupation. The problem with the 
left is that they have stopped listening and are so lost in their fight against the US that they 
are treading and alienating the very people they claim to be fighting for.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3261157,00.html
Poll: Most in Baghdad Want Troops to Stay

Tuesday October 14, 2003 7:01 AM


By WILL LESTER

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - When Gallup set out recently to poll Baghdad residents, the biggest surprise may 
have been the public's reaction to the questioners: Almost everyone responded to the pollsters' 
questions, with some pleading for a chance to give their opinions.

``The interviews took more than an hour to do, people were extremely cooperative with open-ended 
questions,'' said Richard Burkholder, director of international polling for Gallup. ``People went 
on and on.''

But many of those Iraqis still have sharply mixed feelings about the U.S. military presence.

The Gallup poll found that 71 percent of the capital city's residents felt U.S. troops should not 
leave in the next few months. Just 26 percent felt the troops should leave that soon.

However, a sizable minority felt that circumstances could occur in which attacks against the troops 
could be justified. Almost one in five, 19 percent, said attacks could be justified, and an 
additional 17 percent said they could be in some situations.

These mixed feelings in Baghdad come at a time when many in the United States are urging that the 
troops be brought home soon.

Almost six in 10 in the poll, 58 percent, said that U.S. troops in Baghdad have behaved fairly well 
or very well, with one in 10 saying ``very well.'' Twenty 20 percent said the troops have behaved 
fairly badly and 9 percent said very badly.

Gallup, one of the nation's best-known polling operations, hired more than 40 questioners, mostly 
Iraqi citizens directed by survey managers who have helped with other Gallup polling in Arab 
countries. Respondents were told the poll was being done for media both in Iraq and outside their 
country, but no mention was made that the American polling firm was running it.

To conduct the poll, Gallup did interviews face-to-face in people's homes chosen at random from all 
geographic sectors of the city, and more than nine in 10 agreed to participate, at least double the 
response rate for many U.S. telephone polls. Pollsters in the United States have an increasingly 
difficult time getting cooperation from people called on the phone.

``This is the way we did polling in the United States before telephone ownership got to the point 
that we could do reliable phone surveys,'' Burkholder said in an interview with The Associated 
Press. The poll of 1,178 adults was taken between Aug. 28 and Sept. 4 and had a margin of error of 
plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Burkholder said Gallup plans to do further polling in Baghdad in coming months and hopes eventually 
to expand throughout Iraq. Gallup plans to release much of the data through its subscription 
service, the Gallup Poll Tuesday Briefing.

Gallup started its operation in Baghdad because it felt Baghdad would have the lowest security 
risks after the war, but that hasn't turned out to be the case, Burkholder said. Six in 10 Baghdad 
residents said that within the past four weeks they had been afraid at times to go outside their 
homes during the day.

^---

On the Net:

Gallup Web site http://www.gallup.com




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