72% of Americans say Iraqi people are better off now than under Saddam Hussein

[NNN0LHI]

I think this 72% of Americans may have something in common with the Holocaust deniers out there.

Don

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060724-110410-8309r.htm

50 percent of U.S. says Iraq had WMDs
By Jennifer Harper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

<snip>Meanwhile, the Harris poll offered some positive feedback on Iraq. Seventy-two percent of respondents said the Iraqi people are better off now than under Saddam Hussein's regime -- a figure similar to that of 2004, when it stood at 76 percent. In addition, 64 percent say Saddam had "strong links" with al Qaeda, up from 62 percent in October 2004. Fifty-five percent said that "history will give the U.S. credit for bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq."

[LSparkle]

1. (1) Consider the source (WashTimes?) (2) When was this poll done?

I can't believe that 72% figure in light of the recent escalation of violence. (Is this more of KKKarl's "math"?)

[NNN0LHI]

3. Harris poll done this past July n/t

[LSparkle]

4. Figures -- I smelled a rat

What a difference 6 months can make ...

[NNN0LHI]

5. The poll was done 6 months AFTER Bush admitted to killing 30,000 Iraqis last December

Apparently a huge portion of Americans deep thinking comes from below the waist.

Don

[Mikey929]

9. Wash Times is a fraud

Total R-wing piece of garbage that lives in the Post's shadow. Do not believe it if it appears in the Washington Times.

But hey, maybe it is better to be killed by an American GI while walking to the store than it is to be killed by Saddam. And maybe it's better to be raped by a U.S. serviceman than Saddam's thugs. So maybe it is better over there!!! Violence is violence, whoever is doing the killing. Why is it better just because the U.S. is now in charge of the carnage??? At least under Saddam, there was some stability and peace in the region. Now it's a total Cluster-F and no one knows what the heck to do about it. I cannot help but think of George imitating Steve Erkel, looking out at the death and destruction he has wrought -- "Did I do that?" Yes, you did.

[hobbit709]

2. They certainly didn't ask me

or anyone I know.

[Disturbed]

6. Catapulting the Propaganda for the US RW

again. Most Iraqis were not asked, of course.

[kenny blankenship]

7. Unfortunately, US public opinion's U-turn on the wisdom of the war

is not based on any solicitude for the well-being of the Iraqi people. The war is unpopular because it failed, not because it has been judged an injustice against the Iraqi people, or a dangerous assault on the system of international law, or a humanitarian disaster brought about by the murderous indifference of imperialist thugs.
If Bushler's planners had swiftly replaced Saddam Hussein with a Ba'athist General who could've pick up where Saddam left off, and that General agreed to be our obedient toady, and agreed to lease bases to us, and Iraqi society continued, with the Iraqi Army still in uniform and the police kept on the job, and with us working to preserve a maximum of continuity with the previous regime, Iraq might be relatively quiet now (compared to what's happened). In that case, or any other scenario in which the invasion was followed by continuity and civil order within Iraq the vast majority of Americans would express their approval of it and would consider the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war validated and morally justified.

That's very sad, but it's just the nature of what we have to deal with.

[scarface2004]

8. before you know it...

over 100% will say sadam is al kaida..and he piloted the planes into the world trade center!!!

[cboy4]

10. This comes from the Washington Times? Everyone put on their

!!!!!

[Jon8503]

11. The Washington Times is worse than Fox News. N/T.

[neoblues]

12. Well, to the extent that they actually exist...

and actually think the IRAQIs are better off now, then that 72% are either badly misinformed/mistaken, suffering a bad case of republicanism (which means they suffer from delusions) or suffer similarly severe mental-illness and/or brain damage.

Even with the time-delayed aspect of the poll it seems incredible that people could be so seriously in error (that assumes I/we are right--but clearly, we are inarguably correct). To the extent that it is true, it shows the power of the media in concert with our false, deceitful "leaders" to dupe the public. Again, the media must be reformed, asap.

[kenny blankenship]

14. It's like people thinking the citizens of New Orleans are better off after Katrina

somehow, than they were before Katrina, because of Bush's "assistance" to them in their time of need. Nobody but Bush's mother says or thinks anything like that. Maybe that's because they know it's just Bush who's to blame for the plight of New Orleans' people. When you shift the situation to Iraq, however, America as a whole takes Bush's place (even though, again, it's really just Bush who's responsible). Instead of just Bush implicated in the horrors of his policy, it's all of us as Americans who are implicated. The American mind isn't ready to accept this yet. And so the initial premise (Iraq is hell on Earth) has to be denied: Iraq they think to themselves can't be that bad. It simply can't be that people who've received our help--hundreds of billions of dollars worth of "help"--are worse off now than they were under Saddam Hussein, " a modern day Hitler", as Bush Senior called him. That would make us ... like Nazis...and that just can't be, can it?

It is only by clinging to a depraved indifference to the suffering of innocent civilian life that we can shield ourselves from the knowledge of our depraved indifference to the suffering of innocent civilian life.

[necso]

13. Many people lack

utile knowledge, understanding, etc, of the world around them. And many people believe things that are convenient (easy, comforting, etc) for them to believe. And there are many predators who prosper exploiting these circumstances.

This is unfortunate.

[solara]

15. These people haven't seen very many pics of Iraq before the invasion or after

This is why pictures of the 'war' are being censored, so that people STAY blind and ignorant to the full extent of the horror in Iraq and Afghanistan. The truth in pictures and journals must get out there somehow so people can see it with their own eyes.

I have seen more since I joined DU than I saw in 6 years...and it has changed me profoundly.. from an intellectual observer to a passionate activist.

I have no doubt that consistant access to pictures of the carnage and of the flag draped coffins coming home will change those poll numbers as surely as they will change the minds and hearts of the American people who believe that little B*shCo lie - That the Iraqi people are "better off" now.

[Bluerthanblue]

16. they are speaking about those who are dead-

because the dead can't suffer any more-

[NV1962]

17. Too bad the Iraqis don't agree in the assessment of their own place...

The Shiite leader Moqtada al Sadr's spokesman made it quite clear:

"the situation during Saddam’s reign was better than today because then, the oppression was targeted and predictable. Today, danger and oppression overwhelm all Iraqi people without exception."

(Interesting article by the way - I recommend reading it.)

[seabeyond]

18. i didnt catch the american part and was surprised iraqi felt better off

then wtf.... AMERICANS think iraqi's better off,... sittin in their nice comfy chairs across the ocean telling iraqis how they should feel. hm....

i dont care what the americans THINK> totally irrelevent. i do care how the iraqi's who are experiencing this thinks

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. Yes, they risk getting blown up while they're out grocery shopping, but

they have "democracy" now, so all is cool. :sarcasm:

[valerief]

20. Wow! 72% of Americans have been to Iraq? I mean, how else

could they form an intelligent opinion, given that there is absolutely NO credible CMSM coverage in Murka.

[irislake]

21. I'm sure it's more comfortable to believe that.

And isn't that what their president tells them to believe? Apparently he still have some folks who are willing to swallow his lies.

More likely though they find it really unsupportable to think that America made sacrifices of lives and billions of dollars of tax money and ended up doing terrible harm to a country their leader told them it was their noble mission to save.

[malaise]

22. Did they poll those 665,000 dead Iraqis?

Guess they are really better off.