"Unexpected Level of Optimism" Among Iraqis
Nationwide Poll of Iraqis Provides Results That Surprise Pollsters, Analysts
Posted 8 hr. 22 min. ago
In a Sunday Times of London story headlined "Resilient Iraqis ask what civil war?", correspondent Marie Colvin begins her report this way:
Despite sectarian slaughter, ethnic cleansing and suicide bombs, an opinion poll conducted on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq has found a striking resilience and optimism among the inhabitants.
The poll, the biggest since coalition troops entered Iraq on March 20, 2003, shows that by a majority of two to one, Iraqis prefer the current leadership to Saddam Hussein’s regime, regardless of the security crisis and a lack of public services.
The survey, published today, also reveals that contrary to the views of many western analysts, most Iraqis do not believe they are embroiled in a civil war.
Officials in Washington and London are likely to be buoyed by the poll conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB), a respected British market research company that funded its own survey of 5,019 Iraqis over the age of 18.
The nationwide poll was conducted in mid-February and is said to have a margin of error of +/-1.4%
While the report contains fascinating poll result nuggets -- some encouraging, others discouraging -- it's impossible at this point to adequately analyze and interpret the poll results because there's no link on the Sunday Times of London Web site to all the poll questions and results, nor does the ORB polling organization post that information on its Web site.
Excerpts of the poll results as published in the Sunday Times of London:
-- Only 27% of Iraqis believe their country is in a civil war. That number divided along religious lines, with 41% of Sunnis believing Iraq was in a civil war, compared with only 15% of Shi’ites.
-- Yet 49% of those questioned preferred life under Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, to living under Saddam. Only 26% said things had been better in Saddam’s era, while 16% said the two leaders were as bad as each other and the rest did not know or refused to answer.
-- Not surprisingly, the divisions in Iraqi society were reflected in statistics — Sunnis were more likely to back the previous Ba’athist regime (51%) while the Shi’ites (66%) preferred the Maliki government.
-- Some 26% of Iraqis - 15% of Sunnis and 34% of Shi’ites - have suffered the murder of a family member.
-- Kidnapping has also played a terrifying role: 14% have had a relative, friend or colleague abducted, rising to 33% in Baghdad.
Here is the full Marie Colvin story.
Here is a related Sunday Times of London editorial headlined "A turning point for Iraq."
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IraqSlogger: "Unexpected Level of Optimism" Among Iraqis