Iraqi Optimism & The Media’s Bias

So there was a poll recently taken in Iraq and the numbers are not surprising. 

DESPITE sectarian slaughter, ethnic cleansing and suicide bombs, an opinion poll conducted on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq has found a striking resilience and optimism among the inhabitants.

The poll, the biggest since coalition troops entered Iraq on March 20, 2003, shows that by a majority of two to one, Iraqis prefer the current leadership to Saddam Hussein’s regime, regardless of the security crisis and a lack of public services.

The survey, published today, also reveals that contrary to the views of many western analysts, most Iraqis do not believe they are embroiled in a civil war.

Officials in Washington and London are likely to be buoyed by the poll conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB), a respected British market research company that funded its own survey of 5,019 Iraqis over the age of 18.

The 400 interviewers who fanned out across Iraq last month found that the sense of security felt by Baghdad residents had significantly improved since polling carried out before the US announced in January that it was sending in a “surge” of more than 20,000 extra troops.

You can see the complete poll here in PDF form.

Of course our MSM can’t let this good news stand, they did their own polling with half the numbers that ORB did and came to this conclusion:

ABC News/USA Today Poll Finds 86 Percent of Iraqis Fear They Will Be the Victim of Violence

ORB’s poll did not ask that question but they did ask a few that are similar.  When asked about Iraq’s current state only 27% believed that Iraq is in a Civil War, while 61% believe there is no civil war.

So instead of the headline above maybe they should have chosen

Poll finds only 1 in 4 Iraq’s believe Iraq is in a civil war

Of course if this happened we would look out the window and see pig’s flying.

How about the fact that 64% of those polled believe that the current system of Government is the best one for the future of Iraq? 

On this point Sunnis (57%) and Shias (69%) agree that the country should continue as one nation.

Think that would be published by ABC?

Only 21% want Iraq split up…..

Poll finds only 1 in 5 want Iraq split up

Someone better let Joe Biden in on this.

Another factor that the MSM has missed, most likely deliberately, is the fact that the majority of Iraqi’s, 61% to be exact, feel that they are Muslims first, Sunni or Shia second. 

What would that do to the civil war premise pushed by the MSM?

Newsbusters notes how the alphabet channels have ignored this extensive poll and are instead relying solely on their own, less extensive, poll to put out the message they want put out….Iraq is a lost cause, we should run now, let the Iraq’s fend for themselves.

Take the report by ABC’s Terry McCarthy on today’s Good Morning America. After citing weekend casualty statistics, he began by claiming that "now more than ever" Iraqis are nervous about the future of their country. According to McCarthy, "the sound of bombings and gunfire are constant backdrops to everyday life." Constant? Really? I daresay that in the great majority of the country, people rarely hear either. Even in hotspots like Baghdad, while such sounds are not unusual, neither are they "constant" by any means.

But the MSM can ignore the facts all they want.  The reality is that there is a sense of optimism in Iraq. 

UPDATE

Tigerhawk points to something in the poll that is quite telling:

It is quite extraordinary that one quarter of all Iraqis have had a family member murdered since the toppling of the Ba’athists and still they do not hanker for the way it was.

Indeed.

But we know who IS hankering for the way it was.

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