A New Iraq Poll

Baghdad Residents Call Freedom Worth the Price

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 23 — After five months of foreign military occupation and the ouster of Saddam Hussein, nearly two-thirds of Baghdad residents believe that the removal of the Iraqi dictator has been worth the hardships they have been forced to endure, a new Gallup poll shows.

Despite the systemic collapse of government and civic institutions, a wave of looting and violence, and shortages of water and electricity, 67 percent of 1,178 Iraqis told a Gallup survey team that within five years, their lives would be better than before the American and British invasion.

Of course, the editors at the Times are shocked by this. What? People are willing to endure hardship for the idea of freedom?

While 75 percent of those polled said the council's actions were "mostly determined by the coalition's own authorities," the interim government's performance received a favorable rating from 40 percent of those polled. Thirteen percent said it was performing poorly. Forty-two percent were neither positive nor negative.

It's not that they don't have criticisms, but we hear them on the news every day. These are residents of BAGHDAD, in the dangerous Sunni traingle. These are some of the very people who profited most from Saddam Hussien's rule!

And naturally, this being the New York Times, this story is buried. It's not mentioned on their front page, and you have to go looking in other international news to find it.

The NYT headlines? Don't even ask.

Surely Gallup just found a thousand or so crazy Iraqis for their partisan poll.

And there is still no comment from NPR's Anne Garrels.

- posted by total @ 9/24/2003 05:38:00 AM .