I gotta give a big old terrorist fist bump to Sabrina Tavernise and Richard Oppel, who teamed up to interview eighteen people throughout Iraq and discovered that the Iraqis love them some Obama. Not only do all Iraqis love Obama (or, at least, “no one expressed a strong dislike”) but the Iraqis love them some occupation, too.
“Everyone in Iraq likes him,” said the general, Nassir al-Hiti. “I like him. He’s young. Very active. We would be very happy if he was elected president.”
But mention Mr. Obama’s plan for withdrawing American soldiers, and the general stiffens.
“Very difficult,” he said, shaking his head. “Any army would love to work without any help, but let me be honest: for now, we don’t have that ability.”
That’s the lede. Later on, there’s a little does of reality:
“Of course I want the American forces to leave Iraq,” said May Adnan Yunis, whose sister was killed, along with a female and a male co-worker, when they were gunned down by American soldiers while driving to work at Baghdad International Airport three weeks ago. “I want them to go to hell.”
After the killings, a statement by the American military describing the three employees as “criminals” who shot at the soldiers inflamed Iraqi officials even more. In a rare public rebuke of the American military, the Iraqi armed forces general command described the American soldiers’ actions as crimes “committed in cold blood.”
But we only hear the bad news, right?
Yes only the bad news. Every time one of our pols goes on the ritual tour of Iraq, the media suppresses the footage of them at ribbon cuttings for kids’ playgrounds. Bad Media.
Isn’t it time that we found some other needy country to
exploitoccupyassist?I hear Iran may need some “help”.
Eighteen people is kind of a small sample for a survey of what “the Iraqis” think, wouldn’t you say?
l’m sure it’s not easy to get iraqi’s to speak “on the record”…it generally shortens their life span.
but it’s certainly no secret to anyone who’s been paying attention that far, and away, thesuper- majority of iraqi’s would prefer that we just packed up and went home.
l doubt the sentiment has changed significantly since this poll was done 2 years ago…71% of iraquis want us forces to withdraw
furthermore, l have neither the time nor inclination to locate additional information that supports this. google is your friend.
failure to acknowledge the basic fact that the enire iraq adventure has been a clusterfuck from the beginning, and downplaying the desires of the people, whether expressed by 18 or 18,000, is to purposely wear blinders to the facts.
the kool-aide will do that to you.
“l doubt the sentiment has changed significantly since this poll was done 2 years ago.“
It has actually. The number of Iraqis wanting the U.S. to pack up and leave the sooner the better has increased steadily over time. Even the Kurds are fed up.