The hype from Vice President Dick Cheney on the March 16, 2003 edition of "Meet the Press":
"I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators."The Reality from 2007. To paraphrase Cheney, things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, in fact, we are being treated as invaders. They hate us and most think it's okay to kill our soldiers:
With American public opinion turning increasingly against the Iraq war, a poll published by the BBC on Monday showed only 18 percent of Iraqis have confidence in U.S.-led forces.As noted, the poll was conducted by ABC News and USA Today among others. ABC provides an extensive analysis that includes this disturbing finding:
The poll of more than 2,000 people, commissioned by the BBC, ABC News, ARD and USA Today, indicated Iraqis have become less optimistic about the future compared to a similar survey in 2005 when respondents were generally hopeful, the BBC said.
The Iraqi government inspired more confidence than U.S.-led forces, with opinion almost evenly split on whether people had confidence in the U.S.-backed administration headed by Shi'ite Islamist Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
About 86 percent were concerned about someone in their household being a victim of violence. Iraqis were also disappointed by reconstruction efforts since the invasion, with 67 percent saying efforts had not been effective.
The United States gets much of the blame. As noted, in the most troubling result from an American perspective, the number of Iraqis who call it "acceptable" to attack U.S. or coalition forces has soared from 17 percent in early 2004 to 51 percent now.George Bush did this.
