The 80% Myth
Over the weekend Democratic Congressman John Murtha-PA, who cognified the “cut and run” platform for Democrats, said:
“The sooner we’re redeployed the better it’ll be and the more chance for stability. The progress I measure as long as we’re there, the Iraqis, you have to give them an incentive. They’ll let us fight forever.”
Yet Murtha has been saying:
“80% of the people in Iraq want us out, 45% say it’s justified to kill Americans.”
This schizophrenic logic is that Iraqis want the U.S. out of Iraq but they’ll let the US stay and fight forever if we let them.
The truth is that, as usual, Democrats have been blatantly lying about the poll and the results. Here’s the entire recent poll and accompanying article. Democrats use the expert below to say that 80% of Iraqis want the U.S. out:
Two-thirds now oppose the presence of U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, 14 points higher than in February 2004. Nearly six in 10 disapprove of how the United States has operated in Iraq since the war, and most of them disapprove strongly. And nearly half of Iraqis would like to see U.S. forces leave soon.
Specifically, 26 percent of Iraqis say U.S. and other coalition forces should “leave now” and another 19 percent say they should go after the government chosen in this week’s election takes office; that adds to 45 percent. Roughly the other half says coalition forces should remain until security is restored (31 percent), until Iraqi security forces can operate independently (16 percent), or longer (5 percent).
This survey was sponsored by ABC News with partners Time, the BBC, the Japanese network NHK and the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, with fieldwork by Oxford Research International. It consists of in-person interviews with a random national sample of 1,711 Iraqis from early October through mid-November.
(note the source of the survey)
80% of Iraqis say we should leave now? John Murtha needs a refresher course in Math 101. 26% of Iraqis want the U.S. to leave now. 71% of Iraqis want the U.S. to stay until Iraq is stable. 3% are undecided. 100% of Americans want the U.S. to leave eventually. The “two-thirds” of Iraqis who supposedly “oppose the U.S. presence” are broken down into categories in the subsequent paragraph. It is the “two-thirds” figure that Murtha and the Democrats have been using.
This is the real news in the poll, which has not been widely reported:
Economics
-more than 60% (6 in 10) of Iraqis feel very safe in their own neighborhoods, up sharply from just 40% (4 in 10) in a poll in June 2004
-average household incomes have soared by 60% in the last 20 months
-70% of Iraqis rate their own economic situation positively, and consumer goods are sweeping the country
-in early 2004, 6 % of Iraqi households had cell phones; now it’s 62%
-ownership of satellite dishes has nearly tripled, and many more families now own air conditioners (58%, up from 44 %), cars, washing machines and kitchen appliances
Politics
-70% approve of the new constitution, and 70% (including most people in Sunni and Shiite areas alike) want Iraq to remain a unified country
-preference for a democratic political structure has advanced to 57% of Iraqis, while support for an Islamic state has lost ground, to 14% (the rest, 26 %, chiefly in Sunni Arab areas, favor a “single strong leader.”)
-69% of Iraqis expect things for the country overall to improve in the next year  a remarkable level of optimism in light of the continuing violence there
-76% of Iraqis express confidence that this week’s elections will produce a stable government
-interest in politics has soared to 69% today, up from 39 % in November 2003, 54 % in February 2004
-99% of Iraqis support women voting or working as medical doctors
Iraqi blogger Sooni in Baghdad said,
“It was like a dream to be freed by the US Army and the chance is very big right now for us to be a real free and democratic country and this is the only way for Iraq to evolve.”
and
“We know and appreciate what the Americans have done and still doing in Iraq and if you hear some of the Iraqis saying (Leave) let me tell you that there are millions of the Iraqis saying (Stay) and you will see them tomorrow when they will march to defend the democracy you brought to this country”
and
“I saw you (Pres. Bush) defending your decision saying ‘As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq’ well Mr. President let me tell you that your decision will change the world as we know it. You gave Iraqis freedom that they wouldn’t have gotten in a thousand years, and the ‘Iraqi effect’ started to affect the region and this is why everyone around us is trying to ‘kill’ this young born democracy.”
It’s time to believe Iraqis, the military on the ground, the President of the United States and the facts. Doubt those who lie.
Cross-posted at Amy’s Blog
December 15th, 2005 at 9:54 am
Someone needs to give this insolent twit a spanking.
I’ll settle for the 15 million purple fingers that are being jabbed at him instead.
December 16th, 2005 at 2:05 am
The ABC et. al. poll is a different poll from what John Murtha was referring to. Check out BogusStory.com for more details and links.
The Murtha poll was conducted for internal military consumption but leaked out. I would argue this poll had every reason to be accurate.
The ABC et. al. poll was conducted by pro-Bush media agencies for public consumption, or should I say propaganda. The agency they commissioned is not run by statistics Ph.D.s. It is run by neo-cons.