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May 13, 2004
Upcoming Subjects: Iraq and Economics
First, on the Iraq front, we have this beautiful piece of news:
80% in Iraq Distrust Occupation Authority
Results of Poll, Taken Before Prison Scandal Came to Light, Worry U.S. Officials
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 13, 2004; Page A10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22403-2004May12.html
Do note before the Abu Ghrieb scandal.
" Four out of five Iraqis report holding a negative view of the U.S. occupation authority and of coalition forces, according to a new poll conducted for the occupation authority.
In the poll, 80 percent of the Iraqis questioned reported a lack of confidence in the Coalition Provisional Authority, and 82 percent said they disapprove of the U.S. and allied militaries in Iraq.
Although comparative numbers from previous polls are not available, "generally speaking, the trend is downward," said Donald Hamilton, a senior counselor to civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer. The occupation authority has been commissioning such surveys in Iraq since late last year, he said. This one was taken in Baghdad and several other Iraqi cities in late March and early April, shortly before the surge in anti-coalition violence and a few weeks before the detainee-abuse scandal became a major issue for the U.S. authorities in Iraq. "
Emphasis added.
Silent majority eh? Isn't that the favorite thing that Freidman and the idjits at Tacitus, and others desperately grasping at straws were claiming. Note the timing. Now, care to take a guess as to where the ratings are headed now.
Well, I find some small pleasure in this confirmation of my micro-on-the-ground read of things, but a much larger sense of .... what? It can hardly be said to be disappointment, other than I think the Steel Project is now unalterably fucked, unless we go for a really purely Iraqi angle, but then is the money there? Well, we know some major players with real wasta (connexions of the best kind), but is that enough? And can it swing OPIC risk coverage?
But leaving aside the project, this is rather bad. Rather bad indeed.
No surprise though. I can still hold out the bittersweet hope that a sudden and rather uncharacteristic rush of competence will sweep through the CPA-Iraq (by the way I have a funny CPA idjit story to relate, re a watch and his getting ripped off here, and throwing a hissy fit - his 'rights' and all that. Fuckers never learn. Not in motherfucking Kansas anymore.) however that is something as fantastical as perhaps the CPA's own grasp of the situ.
I said what, a few weeks ago? Off a goddamned bloody cliff. Unfortunately, this ain't Hollywood, and those rocks, they're real.
Well, here's to not getting my head sawed off by a dull blade yet. However, the whole spy joke, not funny now, not funny at all.
Posted by The Lounsbury at May 13, 2004 09:18 PM
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Jan-Jul 2004
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