More Iraq Lies

A couple of weeks ago Bush administration officials couldn't stop talking about favorable poll results in Iraq. Polls in the U.S. don't look good so they had to go pretty far afield for positive news. We were told that 60% of Baghdad residents thought that getting rid of Saddam was worth the hardships they have suffered and 67% thought that life would improve within five years.

I am not convinced that polling in America is accurate and I was suspicious from the beginning about these self-serving results. But it turns out that the Bushies are up to their usual tricks. The administration was a bit selective with the polling data it chose to reveal. They neglected to mention that the same poll shows 94% of Baghdad residents think their city is more dangerous now. The poll also showed that Iraqis have a more positive opinion of France and Jacques Chirac than they do of the U.S. and George Bush.

It is bad enough that members of congress embarrassed our nation to rename fried potatoes. Now we find out that Iraqis are still putting the word French with the fries, not to mention braids, manicures and toast.

On September 28 I wrote about our ignorance of Iraqi culture and how that ignorance has already made the situation worse. Well it turns out that most Iraqis, 51%, believe that "democracy is a Western way of doing things and it will not work here." I know they don't want torture chambers either, but we were fed a steady diet of "Saddam is an evil tyrant and that is all you need to know." It wasn't all we needed to know about Iraq and the current mess proves it.

If you want to read through the entire poll you can find it here.