First of all - the sample size. The number of Iraqis questioned for the poll was approximately 2100 people. 2100 people in a country with an estimated population of 27,499,638 according to the CIA Factbook. That means the poll results were from 1/1000 of the population. How can a sample size that small even be considered partially representative of the population?
Next - the polling companies. The polls were managed by D3 Systems of Vienna, VA and KA Research Ltd of
Last but not least the results that didn't make it into the media. For argument's sake lets ignore the small sample size and just look at the results. Several questions had the choices of "much better", "somewhat better", "about the same", "somewhat worse" and "much worse" but "stayed the same" was ignored completely. Keep in mind that this poll was done in August 2007. The surge did not officially start until June 2007 when all the troops were in place. Those responses in between make quite a bit of difference when looking at the results.
Take Question 2 of the poll: "What is your expectation for how things overall in your life will be in a year from now?" 61% answered either "much better", "somewhat better" or "about the same". 39% answered "somewhat worse" or "much worse". The results don't sound as gasp-inspiring as "Only 29% think things will get better in the next year" as reported by the BBC.
Question 10 asked "In the past six months has the security situation in this neighbourhood/village become better, become worse or stayed the same?" 69% of those responding said security had become better or stayed about the same. 31% said it was worse. Since we were only 2 months into the surge, those results are not as dire as reported by the Democrats in Congress.
One question that got a lot of media exposure was Question 21 "How long do you think US and other Coalition forces should remain in
And about withdrawal before civil order is fully restored? 46% believe that withdrawal will make it more likely for
Results that painted Iraqis as on the road to reconciliation were completely ignored by the media. Question 13 asked "Which of the following structures do you believe
"Confidence in the Iraqi Army - 66% answered "great deal of confidence" or "quite a lot of confidence"
Confidence in the Iraqi Police - 69% answered "great deal of confidence" or "quite a lot of confidence."
Willingness of members of the National Assembly of Iraq to make necessary compromises to bring peace and security to the country? - 50%
Separation of people on sectarian lines - 98% responded it was a "bad thing"
The Iraqis' responses to questions about Al Qaeda in
Other questions about Al Qaeda included:
attacks on US and coalition forces - 51% unacceptable
attacks on Iraqi civilians - 100% unacceptable
attempts to gain control in local areas - 98% unacceptable
Countries actively engaged in encouraging sectarian violence within Iraq:
Syria - 66%
Iran - 79%
Saudi Arabia - 65%
So while the small sample size did reveal some negative results for the US and Coalition Forces, there were many more positive results that never made it into the media. These positive results actually back up the maligned testimony of
Once again the media reports the poll results that make
