Just as expected. Petraeus’ Iraq surge report was a crock! Such a rosy picture, but it’s the administration wearing the glasses, while the soldiers and Iraqis wear blood.
An ABC News/BBC/NHK Poll - Iraq: Where Things Stand reveals the opinions of those who actually have to live in this mess–Iraqis, 65-70 percent of whom judge the 6-month surge as resulting in worse security, more political instability, and less redevelopment.
Just 39 percent of Iraqis say their lives are going well, down from 71 percent in November 2005.
Every Iraqi polled in Anbar as well as Baghdad said their lives have been made worse by the surge.
Bush’s recent photo op in Anbar missed the 62 percent there who rate a number of items, such as clean water, availability of household items as “very bad.” In the Anbar area, 100 percent of those polled view attacks on American forces as acceptable.
Nearly 2/3 of Iraqis say the American-led invasion was wrong; 79 percent oppose the presence of coalition forces, and 47 percent of Iraqis say the U.S. and the coalition forces should leave Iraq immediately.
Meanwhile 53 percent of Americans polled didn’t expect Petraeus, the general in charge of the 190,000 lost weapons before being put in charge in Iraq, to report anything other than more White House smoke.
Karen De Young in The Washington Post writes, “"Many experts within and outside the government... contend that some of the underlying statistics are questionable and selectively ignore negative trends."
Michael Winship writes that...”the Bush administration has misinterpreted or cooked or hidden the numbers that tell the real story: the number of attacks, the number of suicide bombings, the numbers of civilian dead and wounded...on Inauguration Day 2009, those troops -- and Iraqis, of course -- will still be dying. Are we nuts?”
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