Majority of Iraqis back new government

Robin Wright, Washington Post:

A large majority of Iraqis say they have confidence in the new interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi that is set to assume political power on June 30, according to a new poll commissioned by U.S. officials in Iraq.

The results are a significant victory for the United States and the United Nations, which together negotiated with squabbling Iraqi factions in an attempt to cobble together a viable government that balanced disparate ethnic and religious groups.

The first survey since the new government was announced by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi just over three weeks ago shows that 68 percent of Iraqis have confidence in the country's new leaders. The numbers are in stark contrast to widespread disillusionment with the previous Iraqi Governing Council, which was made up of 25 members handpicked by the United States that served as the Iraqi partner to the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority. Only 28 percent of Iraqis backed the council when it was dissolved last month, according to a similar poll in May.

...

But 73 percent of Iraqis polled approve of Allawi to lead the new government, while 84 percent approve of the interim president, Ghazi Yawar, and almost two-thirds back the new cabinet -- all impressive showings that indicate the new leaders each have support spanning ethnic and religious groups, U.S. officials said.

...

In a sign that Iraqis are now more optimistic generally about their future after the occupation ends, two-thirds of Iraqis believe the first democratic elections for a new national assembly -- due to be held in December or January -- will be free and fair, the survey shows.

Despite the growing number of attacks on Iraqi security forces, including a series on Thursday, public confidence in both the new Iraqi police and army has reached new highs, the poll shows. Some 70 percent of Iraqis polled support the new army, while 82 percent support the police.


Zarqawi, et.al. are probably in the 18 percent who do not support law enforcement.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more