[Lothar5150]

Originally Posted by Kobuchi

Aha. So what they really want is a US military dictatorship. They plainly have less desire for democratic government, in that translation of the survey.

And I thought Iraq had to be shoved into chaos on behalf of Iraqis who secretly crave democracy, silly me.

No Kobuchi, all that data shows is that people put security at the top of the list. This rational human response. We are far from establishing a dictatorship; in fact, you may have read that there will be elections in January.

Originally Posted by Kobuchi

But we could play with these statistics 'till Armageddon, especially as neither of us know the true phrasing or structure of the surveys, and then we're reading someone's selective interpretation of the results.

I do and the cut and paste is directly from the Gallup site. By the way, where is the link to your data?

Originally Posted by Kobuchi

I remember there was a much cited survey last year that had asked Iraqis if they felt more secure then or at the end of March (while Saddam's regime was still in power). Of course most Iraqis would think mainly of the bombing, power outages, etc. when recalling the end of March, but their answer was taken to mean relief the Ba'ath party had been abolished by the Coalition Authority. Likewise you could get sharply different answers from me by asking if I approve of "the Saddam regime", or, "Iraq's Ba'ath party", yet most westerners would think that the same question.

Your full of it Kobuchi, you are the one who sited polls, now that I am hanging you with your own rope you want to invalidate the polls. At least attempt to be intellectually honest.

Originally Posted by Kobuchi

I'm confident the vast majority of Iraqis would like the occupiers to start leaving today. Pollsters can insert all sorts of conditions in that like, "even if you blow up?", "even if you starve?", or "even if that makes everything worse?" and so forth, but the basic sentiment is still true, I believe. For some reasons you believe most Iraqis want US troops there. They have to like it. I think that vision will grow eventually ridiculous (as have previous visions of Iraq), but by then we'll have yet another "unforeseeable" crisis unfolding, so Iraqi consent of US military/political intervention can be a moot point and you may avoid embarrassment.

This is your problem Kabouchi; you inject your opinion into a supporting premise. A good supporting premise should consist of facts or data supporting a conclusion. If you are going to attempt to support a conclusion based on opinion you need to have expert qualification or personal experience in the matter...you have nether. Therefore, you should stick to support via qualified third parties.

Originally Posted by Kobuchi

Barring international monitors from the states of key interest did raise some eyebrows.

Here is another example of you using your opinion to support a premise. I have held on to this one for a while. How many times have you stated we kicked out international observers?
Click and Enjoy the Crow