Baghdad don't want troops to leave too quickly

[bodypilot90 0]

10-13) 22:29 PDT 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.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/10/13/national0129EDT0417.DTL

[billvon 3,121]

Some other results of that poll:

33 percent of Iraqis in Baghdad thought they were better off than they were before the invasion, and 47 percent said they were worse off.

94 percent said Baghdad was now a more dangerous place for them to live.

29 percent of Baghdad residents had a favorable view of the United States, while 44 percent had a negative view.

55 percent had a favorable view of France.

50 percent of Baghdad residents had a negative view of President Bush, while 29 percent had a favorable view of him.

[Gawain 0]

Are you getting that from Gallup.com directly?

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[billvon 3,121]

>Are you getting that from Gallup.com directly?

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/2003/09/29/news/6888790.htm

[Gawain 0]

I wish the Wash Post would shut up enough for real people to look at the raw data too. I don't doubt the figures but I do doubt the editorializing that Walter Pincus is doing in the process.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[kiltboy 0]

A couple of things I take from this poll are that the Baghdad residents do not want the troops to leave and that they are scared to go out during the day.

Quote

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.

Not so much we like you here as, "we think the place will go downhill/Saddam will come back if you leave"

I'm confident that once SH is caught, an Iraqi police force is set up and the Iraqis can take care of their own affairs they would like the US presence reduced.

Now some other ramblings.
I'm also pretty sure that the Turkish solidiers are not welcome given the reasons from the Iraqi council/ the history with the Kurds and the sensible notion that everyone in the region has an agenda that does not put Iraq's best interests at heart.
Also as we're on the topic does anyone have a comment about this story?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3190934.stm

Looks like an officer wrote letters for his troops to send home. It makes me a little suspicious about all the football fields people have been building.
I've 5 bucks that says Iraq won't win the Football world cup in the next 12 years. Any takers?

David

[billvon 3,121]

>Also as we're on the topic does anyone have a comment about this story?

I think it's very funny that Bush is claiming that the press is not printing enough good things about Iraq when:

-he went out of his way to present as bleak a picture as possible of Hussein's WMD's before the war, going so far as to say intentionally misleading things to the public and congress

-the military is sending fake letters to newspapers about how "good things are"

-one soldier a day, on average, is being killed in Iraq

-his own administration is a source of the leaks that get reported as bad news

-Cheney and Bush can't even agree on whether Iraq had anything to do with 9/11

Why can't the military just run the press? Would make things so much simpler.