Unfortunately for the Bush administration – and lone voices still advocating the merits of the Iraq war – it looks like the “liberated” Iraqis aren’t very grateful to the American people:
Over the last two years, Iraqi political values have become more secular and nationalistic, even though attitudes toward Americans have deteriorated, according to surveys of nationally representative samples of the population conducted in November 2004 and April 2006.
The Iraqi surveys, part of the ongoing World Values Surveys, are a collaborative project between the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and Eastern Michigan University.
The percentage of Iraqis who said they would not want to have Americans as neighbours rose from 87 percent in 2004 to 90 percent in 2006. When asked what they thought were the three main reasons why the United States invaded Iraq, 76 percent gave “to control Iraqi oil” as their first choice.
But at the same time, significantly more Iraqis support democratic values, including the separation of religion and politics.…
Opposition to the war has never been higher and even Iraqis themselves are being treated like second-class citizens in the US. Leadership is a dirty word in the world’s only superpower.