| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
19 Mar 2007 08:59:36 AM |
| Object: |
Fear, anger, stress grip Iraqis |
From The Associated Press, 3/19/07:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4642336.html
Poll: Fear, anger, stress grip Iraqis
By WILL LESTER Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON —
The optimism that helped sustain Iraqis during the first few years of
the war has dissolved into widespread fear, anger and distress amid
unrelenting violence, a survey found.
The poll — the third in Iraq since early 2004 by ABC News and media
partners — draws a stark portrait of an increasingly pessimistic
population under great emotional stress.
Among the findings of this survey for ABC News, USA Today, the BBC and
ARD German TV:
_The number of Iraqis who say their own life is going well has dipped
from 71 percent in November 2005 to 39 percent now.
_About three-fourths of Iraqis report feelings of anger, depression
and difficulty concentrating.
_More than half of Iraqis have curtailed activities like going out of
their homes, going to markets or other crowded places and traveling
through police checkpoints.
_Only 18 percent of Iraqis have confidence in U.S. and coalition
troops, and 86 percent are concerned that someone in their household
will be a victim of violence.
_Slightly more than half of Iraqis — 51 percent — now say that
violence against U.S. forces is acceptable — up from 17 percent who
felt that way in early 2004. More than nine in 10 Sunni Arabs in Iraq
now feel this way.
_While 63 percent said they felt very safe in their neighborhoods in
late 2005, only 26 percent feel that way now.
The major cause for this sharp reversal in Iraqi attitudes is the
continuing violence — bombings, attacks by roving gunmen and
kidnappings — that has overwhelmed the country since the U.S. invasion
four years ago this week.
Eighty percent of Iraqis surveyed reported some kind of violence
nearby, according to the nationally representative survey conducted
Feb. 25 to March 5 among 2,212 Iraqis, including oversamples in Anbar
province, the Sadr City section of Baghdad, Basra and Kirkuk.
Results were subject to a sampling error margin of plus or minus 2.5
percentage points.
The survey was done by D3 Systems, a pollster specializing in conflict
countries
Iraqi civilian deaths are estimated at more than 54,000, possibly much
higher.
More than half of Iraqis surveyed said a friend or relative has been
hurt or killed in the violence, while almost nine in 10 worried that a
loved one will be hurt.
The levels of stress soar outside relatively peaceful Kurdistan,
especially in Baghdad and the Sunni-dominated Anbar province, the poll
found.
Fewer than half in the country, 42 percent, said that life in Iraq now
is better than it was under Saddam Hussein, the late dictator accused
of murdering tens of thousands during a brutal regime.
Iraqis pessimism about safety spills over into their views of most
aspects of life — the economy, basic needs like power and clean water,
even the risks of sending their children to school.
But views of the U.S. military presence are contradictory among Iraqis
— just as they are in this country.
About four in five Iraqis oppose the presence of U.S. troops but only
a third want those U.S. troops to leave Iraq immediately.
Conducting the face-to-face poll was a difficult ordeal in such a
violent country.
More than 100 Iraqi interviewers conducted the poll and some reported
seeing bombings, beatings and even a mass kidnapping.
Several teams of interviewers were detained by police — but every
interviewer made it home safely.
___________________________________________________
Harry
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