ABC News/USA Today/BBC/ARD poll: Iraq: Where Things Stand
From: “Langer, Gary” Gary.Langer@abc.com
Date: March 19, 2007 6:59:56 AM EDT
Subject: ABC News/USA Today/BBC/ARD poll: Iraq: Where Things Stand
ABC News, in conjunction with USA Today, the BBC and ARD German TV,
has produced an extraordinary national public opinion poll in Iraq.
Four years after the war began, the survey paints a devastating
portrait of life in that country - widespread violence, torn lives,
displaced families, emotional damage, collapsing services, an ever-
starker sectarian chasm - and a draining away of the underlying
optimism that once prevailed.
Violence is the cause; its reach vast, the personal toll enormous.
The survey is based on a random national sample of 2,212 Iraqi adults
interviewed in person from Feb. 25 to March 5 via 458 sampling points
across the country. In addition to the main analysis, our reporting
includes a sidebar on how the poll was done, including comments from
the Iraqi interviewers describing their experiences in the field.
To see the main story, go to http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2954716
This and other ABC News polls may be viewed at http://abcnews.com/ pollvault.html
March 20th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Of course we should be deeply concerned about the situation in Iraq. But it doesn’t help that the coverage of this poll has been hopelessly one-sided - not to say misleading (Iraq poll coverage).
Unless the views of Iraqis are addressed as they really are, not as the unmitigated disaster we feel them to be, the latter view could very well become self-fulfilling.