Anbar Poll: U.S. As Unpopular As Al Qaeda

New York Times:

In his address to the nation on Thursday, President Bush singled out progress in Anbar Province as the model for United States success in Iraq. The president's claims echoed those made earlier in the week by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, in his Congressional testimony. And they raised a question worth examining: Do United States military alliances with Sunni tribal leaders truly reflect a turning of hearts and minds away from Anbar's bitter anti-Americanism?

The data from our latest Iraq poll suggest not.

Al Qaeda, it should be said, is overwhelmingly -- almost unanimously -- unpopular in Anbar, as it is in the rest of Iraq. But our enemies' enemies are not necessarily our friends. The United States, it turns out, is equally unpopular there.

In a survey conducted Aug. 17-24 for ABC News, the BBC and NHK, the Japanese broadcaster, among a random national sample of 2,212 Iraqis, 72 percent in Anbar expressed no confidence whatsoever in United States forces. Seventy-six percent said the United States should withdraw now -- up from 49 percent when we polled there in March, and far above the national average.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[shedances]

12:56 PM on 09/17/2007

The rest of the world doesn't really trust the United States anymore, it seems, after the unjust, greed-based Iraq invasion ... and can anyone blame them? Bush has made us out to look like arrogant, dishonest, oil-driven world neighbors who care little for the consequences of our actions abroad. We have a long way to go, to repair our damaged image in the eyes of the rest of the world. And yes ~ our global neighbor's views DO matter, despite arguments that we are the only real superpower left & can do anything we please. Wrong.

[Where is Jesus?]

12:47 PM on 09/17/2007

MSM must start showing the real pictures of all the death and destruction going on in Iraq. Start showing the pictures of the military bodies being returned. Just start telling the truth! And even the last US citizens who support Bush's war will stop supporting it. A large portion of the US may be ignorant and uneducated but that does not mean our citizens are immoral, as is our president.

[mrcontinental]

11:48 AM on 09/17/2007

Now that's shocking news.

[getoffmedz]

11:15 AM on 09/17/2007

This foul administration has no grasp on reality other than the reality they try to stuff up the butts of the idiots who voted for them, TWICE!

Bullshit without end!

They even got to Greenspan on his "It's all about the oil," statement.

How the American people can stand this corrupt, immoral, murdering, lying bunch of miscreants is utterly amazing and sickening.

[fourex]

11:01 AM on 09/17/2007

Anbar knows that the hundred dollar bills Gen. Petraeus is handing out won't be worth one hundred cents next year.

[average joe]

10:24 AM on 09/17/2007

War isn't a libby love in contest.

[TankerRat]

12:13 PM on 09/17/2007

You got that right average joe. To anyone who's seen that butchers yard your words ring true. Let us also remember that freedom isn't free. SOMEBODY pays that tab. The ONLY currency to pay it with is BLOOD.

[DrenchedOtter]

09:31 AM on 09/17/2007

It's good to know that our tactics in Anbar are working:

"That begins with ensuring that America does have the world's strongest and smartest military force. We've begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas, particularly in Al Anbar province, it's working.

We're just years too late changing our tactics. We can't ever let that happen again. We can't be fighting the last war. We have to be preparing to fight the new war."

Oops, that quote's not from George Bush, it's Hillary Clinton last month:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/08/21/clinton-iraq-tactics-wo_n_61272.html

[dora rice]

08:49 AM on 09/17/2007

he invaded Iraq but didn't follow up with a plan .He has a chance to pulverize Iran, which is the only way he can win back there, but is to much of a coward to do it. He needs to be impeached for being a coward and just making a mess in the middle east.

[Sumocat]

08:48 AM on 09/17/2007

Yay! U.S. now as popular in Anbar as al Qaeda! That's an improvement, right?

[bushdoescrack]

08:42 AM on 09/17/2007

bush is a glaring example of what happens to a brain after years on drugs and alcohol. he has to be stopped.

[customROUNDpoolTABLES]

06:48 AM on 09/17/2007

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[kmccaskill]

03:39 AM on 09/17/2007

Does Experience Matter? (Clinton and JFK didn't think so)

This Video Is Showing That Obama can be president because two fmr presidents were
where he is right now, history proves experience makes an either worse president( nixon, bush, vp dick cheney, defense sec.rumsfeld)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBy3AKn_2Fk

[TankerRat]

12:10 PM on 09/17/2007

You willing to bet your country on that kmccaskill. I'm not. Besides, neither Clinton (governor) or JFK (senator, veteran) we're inexperienced. Add to that the notion that these times were somewhat different than today. I'm for change but not for putting a five year old media creation in charge of the world's only remaining superpower.

[johnnyjust]

02:36 AM on 09/17/2007

Leave it to PuffPost to try to rally support for terrorists.

[godlessclif]

02:54 AM on 09/17/2007

Bush is a terrorist

[dora rice]

09:04 AM on 09/17/2007

Bush likes to make war, and then to scared and to much of a coward to win it.

[StillAmused]

03:25 AM on 09/17/2007

You just kinda say stuff as it comes to you, huh? Probably what makes you so effective.

Asshole.

Why do you even bother?

[Defyant]

01:56 AM on 09/17/2007

I guess the Iraqi"s know a terrorist when they see one. Unlike the Americans, a terrorist is someone who won't play ball.

[FogBelter]

01:00 AM on 09/17/2007

The Sunnis aren't stupid ... they saw an opportunity to use the United States to eradicate the Al Qaeda pests in their region. If they could find a way to have the US exterminate the Shi'ite in Iraq as well they'd love it.

But would the Sunni grow to love the US for the services it provided? Don't bet on it.

[Podewumun]

01:31 AM on 09/17/2007

Ummmm...wasn't Saddam, our good buddy for so many years, a Sunni? And weren't the Sunnis under Saddam, even though the minority, running the show?
While they may hate us NOW for stringing up their 'Lion of the Desert', my guess would be that they'll gladly cut a deal with the Devil to regain their former position of power.
But, then again, I could be wrong.

[dora rice]

09:02 AM on 09/17/2007

lol agreed. We don't want to be loved, we just want results. But Bush never understood that.