Baghdad residents support US presence for now - poll
More than two-thirds of Baghdad residents would like to see US troops stay longer than a few more months, but many still have sharply mixed feelings about their presence troops, a poll says.
The Gallup poll found that 71% of the Iraqi capital’s residents felt US troops should not leave in the next few months. Just 26% felt the troops should leave that soon.
But a sizeable minority felt there were circumstances in which attacks against those troops could be justified. Almost one in five (19%) said attacks could be justified, and an additional 17% said they could be in some situations.
These mixed feelings from Baghdad residents come at a time when many in the US are calling for the troops to be brought home soon.
When Gallup set out recently to poll residents of Baghdad on their feelings about the war, US troops and the future of their country, the biggest surprise may have been public reaction to the questioners. The response rate was close to 97%, with some people following questioners around the streets begging for a chance to give their opinions, said Richard Burkholder, director of international polling for the organisation.
Almost six in 10 in the poll (58%), said US troops in Baghdad have behaved fairly well or very well, with one in 10 saying “very well”. Twenty percent said the troops have behaved fairly badly and 9% said very badly.
Six in 10 Baghdad residents said that within the past four weeks they had been afraid at times to go outside their homes during the day.
Gallup hired more than 40 questioners, most of them Iraqi citizens directed by survey managers who have helped with other Gallup polling in the Muslim world. Respondents were told the poll was being done for the media both in Iraq and outside their country, but no mention was made that the US polling firm was running it.
To conduct the poll, Gallup did interviews face-to-face in people’s homes chosen at random from all geographic sectors of the city. The poll of 1,178 adults was taken between August 28 and September 4.
