Iraqis support attacks on British troops
torresD
The opinion poll, carried out in August,
also debunks claims by both the US and
British governments that the general
well-being of the average Iraqi is
improving in post-Saddam Iraq.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/23/wirq23.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/10/23/ixportaltop.html
Secret MoD poll: Iraqis support attacks on British troops
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 23/10/2005)
Millions of Iraqis believe that suicide
attacks against British troops are justified,
a secret military poll commissioned by senior
officers has revealed.
The poll,
undertaken for the Ministry of
Defence and seen by The Sunday Telegraph,
shows that up to 65 per cent of Iraqi
citizens support attacks and fewer than
one per cent think Allied military involvement
is helping to improve security in their country.
Andrew Robathan:
Government policy 'disastrous'
It demonstrates for the first time the true
strength of anti-Western feeling in Iraq after
more than two and a half years of bloody occupation.
The nationwide survey also suggests that
the coalition has lost the battle to win
the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people,
which Tony Blair and George W Bush
believed was fundamental to creating
a safe and secure country.
The results come as it was disclosed
yesterday that Lt Col Nick Henderson,
the commanding officer of the
Coldstream Guards in Basra,
in charge of security for the region,
has resigned from the Army.
He recently voiced concerns over a
lack of armoured vehicles for his men,
another of whom was killed in a bomb
attack in Basra last week.
The secret poll appears to contradict
claims made by Gen Sir Mike Jackson,
the Chief of the General Staff,
who only days ago congratulated
British soldiers for
"supporting the Iraqi people in
building a new and better Iraq".
Andrew Robathan,
a former member of the SAS and
the Tory shadow defence minister,
said last night that the
poll clearly showed a complete
failure of Government policy.
He said:
"This clearly states that the Government's
hearts-and-minds policy has been disastrous.
The coalition is now part of the
problem and not the solution.
"I am not advocating a pull-out but
if British soldiers are putting their
lives on the line for a cause which is
not supported by the Iraqi people then
we have to ask the question,
'what are we doing there?' "
The Sunday Telegraph disclosed
last month that a plan for an
early withdrawal of British troops
had been shelved because of the failing
security situation,
sparking claims that
Iraq was rapidly becoming
"Britain's own Vietnam".
The survey was conducted by an
Iraqi university research team that,
for security reasons,
was not told the data it compiled
would be used by coalition forces.
It reveals:
. Forty-five per cent of Iraqis believe
attacks against British and American troops
are justified -
rising to 65 per cent in the
British-controlled Maysan province;
. 82 per cent are "strongly opposed"
to the presence of coalition troops;
. less than one per cent of the population
believes coalition forces are responsible
for any improvement in security;
. 67 per cent of Iraqis feel less
secure because of the occupation;
. 43 per cent of Iraqis believe
conditions for peace and stability
have worsened;
. 72 per cent do not have confidence
in the multi-national forces.
The opinion poll, carried out in August,
also debunks claims by both the US and
British governments that the general
well-being of the average Iraqi is
improving in post-Saddam Iraq.
The findings differ markedly from
a survey carried out by the BBC in
March 2004 in which the overwhelming
consensus among the 2,500 Iraqis
questioned was that life was good.
More of those questioned
supported the war than
opposed it.
Under the heading
"Justification for Violent Attacks",
the new poll shows that 65 per
cent of people in Maysan province -
one of the four provinces under British control -
believe that attacks against coalition forces
are justified.
The report states that for Iraq as a whole,
45 per cent of people feel attacks are justified.
In Basra,
the proportion is
reduced to 25 per cent.
The report profiles those likely to
carry out attacks against British and
American troops as being
"less than 26 years of age,
more likely to want a job,
more likely to have been looking for
work in the last four weeks and less
likely to have enough money even for
their basic needs".
Immediately after the war the coalition
embarked on a campaign of reconstruction
in which it hoped to improve the electricity
supply and the quality of drinking water.
That appears to have failed,
with the poll showing that 71 per
cent of people rarely get safe
clean water,
47 per cent never have enough electricity,
70 per cent say their sewerage system rarely
works and 40 per cent of southern Iraqis are
unemployed.
But Iraq's President Jalal Talabani
pleaded last night for British troops
to stay.
"There would be chaos
and perhaps civil war,"
he said.
"We are now fighting a world war
launched by terrorists against
civilisation,
against democracy, against progress,
against all the values of humanity.
"If British troops withdrew,
the terrorists would say,
'Look, we have imposed our will
on the most accomplished armed forces
in the world and terror is the way to
oblige the Europeans to surrender to us'."
. John Reid, the Defence Secretary will
announce next week that 3,100 troops are
to deploy to Afghanistan next April as
a part of the expansion of the International
Sec-urity and Assistance Force.
Their job will be to hunt down
the Taliban and to take part in
anti-narcotics operations.
20 October 2005: Roadside bomb kills British soldier
8 October 2005: Rise of militias leaves Basra in the balance
30 September 2005: Rise of militias leaves Basra in the balance
Robin Hood Zoro
serwad
"torresD" <torr...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:oJC6f.18682$QE1....@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
you shut the drug trade down. I remeber in Vietnam and Cambodia how the
brass made bundles of cash transporting dope to US!