Page 216 - Mass Media, Mass Propoganda Examining American News in the War on Terror

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sources, but have been left out of mainstream reporting and editorializing on the
Iraq war.
Incorporation of such questions into media discourse is vital if Americans
are interested in the consent, or lack thereof, of the Iraqi people to occupation
and to Iraqi democracy in general. Throughout the post-invasion period, Iraqis
indicated overwhelmingly that they were, and are, opposed to what the Bush
administration and U.S. are doing in Iraq:
According to one poll conducted in 2004, 80 percent of Iraqis surveyed
0
indicated that they lacked confidence in the Coalition Provisional Authority,
while 82 percent disapproved of the U.S. and its allies occupying ~ra~.'~~
In another 2004 poll, 71 percent of Iraqis questioned said they felt that
0
U.S. troops were occupiers, rather than "liberators." Sixty percent also felt
that U.S. troops displayed disrespect for Iraqis when searching their homes,
while over half indicated that killing U.S. troops "can be justified in at least
some
In a secret Ministry of Defense poll released in late 2005, 65 percent of
Iraqis asked indicated that they supported attacks on British troops in south-
ern Iraq, while 45 percent supported attacks on American troops; 82 percent
were opposed to the occupation. This sentiment was reinforced in a 2006
poll, which found that six in ten Iraqis supported violent attacks against
American troops.'38
In a poll released by the Program for International Policy Attitudes in
January 2006, 87 percent of Iraqis surveyed said that they approved of an
Iraqi government plan that endorsed a timetable for U.S. withdrawal. At the
same time, only 23 percent believed that the U.S. would withdraw from
Iraqi if it were asked.'39
Arab elites also have reservations over U.S. incursions into the Middle
East. One U.N. Report endorsed by Arab intellectuals condemned the U.S.
supported Israel occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the U.S.
occupation of Iraq, as main factors in inciting mass public opposition to the
U.S. throughout the region.140

Opposition to occupation is put forth in anecdotal evidence reported in the
Progressive-Left media as well. Cliff Kindy recounts from his time speaking
with Iraqis about the war:
From my experiences, the majority of the Iraqi people are against the occupa-
tion of Iraq. When I was traveling back to the U.S. through Amman Jordan in
2004, I met an Iraqi exile while I was waiting for my flight. He was Shia Mus-
lim and had worked as a physician. He had lived in Jordan for many years after
he was kicked out of Iraq; his son and wife were killed by Saddam Hussein's
regime. I think that his story is really symbolic of the change in Iraqi opinion
concerning the war and the occupation. He told me that originally he had been
in favor of the U.S. invasion-that he saw it as a way for the country to open
up politically and economically. By March of 2004 though, a year after the in-
vasion, he had changed his mind completely (after he had gone back to Iraq).
He had become so outraged with the occupation and with the U.S. that he told