Wednesday, March 17, 2004

I find the Iraqi polls conducted by Iraqis to constitute a more accurate measure of Iraqi public opinion. This is the most recent poll conducted by the most professional outfit in Iraq, the Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies and Research (a fancy title for a two-persons operations from what I gather), and the findings were published in Az-Zaman (one of the most widely read papers in Iraq, published by Sa`d Al-Bazzaz, former Goeebels of Saddam, and current Goebbels of US occupation). It reveals the following: 54 % do not trust Paul Bremer (vs. 33.2); 54.9 do not trust the coalition authority (vs. 32.8); 42.8 do not trust coalition forces (vs. 31.6); 42.8 do not trust UN (vs. 43.7); 35.4 do not trust the puppet council (vs. 52.9); 32.7 do not trust the ministries (vs. 49.9). And 40 % are disinterested in activities and plans of the coalition authority (vs. 38.6); 87.6 consider the achievements of the coalition with regard to providing electric power to be weak (vs. 4.9); 60 % find it weak in providing drinking water; 81.8 find it weak in providing gasoline; 41.9 find it weak in providing food stuff; 78.7 find it weak in improving sewage systems; 32.3 find it weak in renovation of schools. 5.2 % find the puppet council to be fairly representative of Shi`ites. 50.2 % reject the dual citizenship law (many in the Arab press, by the way, are expressing outrage that Israelis can now attain Iraqi citizenship) while 33.4 % accept it. And 48.6 % oppose the running of political parties by people who returned from exile, and 52.7 % do not want them to occupy high political posts. If you factor in the percentage of Kurdish respondents, you realize that the picture presented by the administration does not fit.