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December 19, 2005
Some Actual Reporting
The following was an AP story:
President Bush is making selective use of an opinion poll when he tells people that Iraqis are increasingly upbeat.The same poll that indicated a majority of Iraqis believe their lives are going well also found a majority expressing opposition to the presence of U.S. forces, and less than half saying Iraq is better off now than before the war.
Bush frequently talks in general terms about millions of Iraqis "looking forward to a future with hope and optimism," as he put it in a news conference Monday. The previous evening, he was more specific in his televised address when he declared, "Seven in 10 Iraqis say their lives are going well — and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve even more in the year ahead."
He was referring to an ABC News poll conducted with Time magazine and other media partners before the Iraqi general elections last week. Bush is dismissive of polls that reflect on his own performance, claiming not to pay attention to them.
Among the findings:
_More than two-thirds of Iraqis surveyed face-to-face opposed the U.S. presence, but only one-quarter of respondents wanted American troops to leave right away.
_44 percent said their country is better off than before the war.
_More than six in 10 said they feel safe in their neighborhoods, up from four in 10 in June 2004.
_Half said the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was wrong, up from 39 percent in February 2004.
_More than two-thirds said they expect things to get better in the coming months.
Don't you wish they'd done a bit more of that before? Before the war? When the lies were just as blatant and knowable?
Posted by zeynep at December 19, 2005 09:19 PM
Comments
Iraqis are increasingly upbeat.
Actually what he meant to say is that they are increasingly beat up. God, it's getting so I can't even laugh at this crap anymore.
Posted by: catherine at December 20, 2005 03:44 PM
I thought Bush didn't pay attention to the polls. Isn't that what he has said again and again in the face of domestic polls showing his administration to be the most unpopular in recent history?
Posted by: Louis Godena at December 20, 2005 10:49 PM
So far as the optimism goes, I suspect that for many Iraqis that is something along the lines of ``Been down so long, it looks like up to me''.
Posted by: Paul Lyon at December 20, 2005 11:38 PM