I was on my way home from a late-shift at the office, and happened to catch the replay of the Diane Rehm show from Tuesday, March 20, on which they were discussing the results of a public opinion poll conducted in Iraq, commissioned by USA Today, ABC News, the BBC, and ARD (a German public-broadcasting consortium).
What I found most interesting about the program was that they spent quite a lot of time discussing the methodology of the polling, which is important, because the method of polling can have a large impact, directly, on how valid the results are. Specifically, the guests on the show discussed the exact method by which the pollsters were sent out into the communities, how they were supervised, and how they selected where to poll.
Further, because this type of polling had been used before, and because the methodology had been followed so well, results from the current poll were able to be compared with a poll conducted four years ago in the same fashion, very shortly after the United States engaged its war against Saddam Hussein.
Perhaps one of the more striking results from this poll is the one that states that 53% of Iraqis believe we should not pull out of Iraq precipitously, and should, in fact, remain in place until the country’s government can secure itself; contrasting this with another item that states that 51% of Iraqis believe that it is acceptable to kill Americans who may be occupying their territory. Combined, I think these sentiments present a confusing picture about how we should conduct our tactical military operations moving forward.
On the one hand, our presence is desired by Iraqis to help them strengthen the security of their own nation. On the other hand, we are threatened by more than half the population for being in their land. How, then do we resolve this dilemma?
Is partition the answer? If we break the country into three separate parts, will everyone be happy? No. Quite simply the two extremes of the country, north and south, are too resource rich, and the center too resource poor, to make this plan work.
How about a loose federation of states that share taxation and representation? This might work… were it not for the fact that a minority held brutal sway over a majority for such a long time, and it appears that that majority now wants retribution for the pains they put up with.
Wait a second… why am I actively trying to come up with ideas to fix the problems that weren’t created by me? Oh that’s right – I believe in coming to the table with solutions, rather than grousing about being put into a position that I didn’t want to be put into.
It would be nice if my elected leaders worked together to help solve the messes first, regardless of fault, and then worked later to prevent messes like this from being created again.
