Iraqis: Capable of Answering Polls, Too

The Poll--for politicans, fingers licked and held to test the breeze, it is Shangri-la. For example: wonder why Bush stopped talking about Social Security "reform" in the middle of last year? Polls. The measurement of soft power and political capital, the aggregation of polling data. The tidiness of numbers. How to keep power, how to get power: what to do next.

Today, Haverford's student page linked to a poll taken of Iraqi citizens, which was conducted by an organization called "World Public Opinion." For all the U.S. hollering about staying the course in Iraq, something tells me that Iraqi citizens have a pretty fair idea of what's going on in their own country. In numbers: 47% of Iraqis support attacks on U.S. forces, while only 7% support attacks on the new Iraqi government. And 67% think security will increase if the U.S. leaves in 6 months. The fact is, the U.S. prescence in Iraq is catalyzing the violence. 70% of Iraqis want the U.S. to leave either in 6 months or gradually over the next two years.

The idea that we need to stay in Iraq until the security situation improves is tautological. We are the reason security has failed to materialize in the 3 years since invasion. Our continued prescence ignores reality. The poll is simple; it is summarized in attractive and easy-to-read colored charts, and it gives a clear directive:

Set a time-table; send the troops home.

-Emma