Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Powerliner still powerfully stupid
Compare Hinney's mincemeat interpretation to the data of an ABC poll he's opining on (PDF).
HINNEY: "Actually, most Iraqis view the occupation exactly as President Bush and most Americans do: they want our forces to stay until the Iraqis can maintain reasonable security on their own, then leave."
Actually, 78% of Iraqis polled indicated "not much" or "no" confidence in "US and UK occupation forces." Nor really Bush's view of the occupation at all.
HINNEY: "The ABC News poll released yesterday found that only 26% of respondents want coalition troops to 'leave now.'"
Actually, 45% wanted the U.S. to "leave now" (26%) or "Remain until the Iraqi government elected in December [two days from now] is in place." (19%). Compare to the 50% who wished the U.S. to "Remain until security is restored" (31%), "Remain until the Iraqi security forces can operate independently" (16%), or "Remain longer but leave eventually" (3%).
HINNEY: "Further, only 10% list the withdrawal of foreign troops within the next year as a 'high priority.'"
Actually, no. The pollsters didn't ask whether "withdrawal of foreign troops" is a high or low priority. Rather, they asked respondents to rank their first, second, and third priorities out of a list of 11 goals. "Getting U.S. and other occupation forces out of Iraq" was ranked #1 by 10% of respondents as their "First Priority", which made it the #2 first priority, albeit a distant second to "Regaining public security in the country," which was the first priority for 57% of Iraqis.
// posted by Erik @ 12/13/2005 05:09:00 PM
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