(By Ray D.)
According to SPIEGEL ONLINE, Iraqis are terribly desperate, fearful of the future and itching to get rid of foreign troops – yet the most evil and stubborn man in the world, George W. Bush, simply won’t listen and doesn’t care. Not surprisingly – the picture presented to German readers is one-sided and highly simplistic – yet wrapped in a guise of legitimate journalism. Below is the homepage from yesterday:
“Poll: Iraqis Increasingly Desperate – Bush Asks for Patience
The poll results are devastating: Three-quarters of Iraqis barely trust they can walk the streets, increasingly few look hopefully to the future. Four years after the start of the Iraq war around 80 percent want to get rid of foreign troops, but US President Bush won’t yield.
TV Documentary from Iraq: “I regret the fall of the Saddam Statue”
Anniversary of the Iraq War: Bush warns of dangers of troop withdrawal”
SPIEGEL ONLINE goes on to mention that 40% of Iraqis primarily blame President Bush (9%) or the USA (31%) for the violence and lack of security. That is true, but the publication failed to mention the following facts from the very same poll in its piece:
- Only 35% of all Iraqis and only 36% of Baghdad residents want US troops to leave now. 65% want US troops to stay with conditions. This stands in stark contrast to the impression given by SPON.
- When “asked whether their lives were overall better or worse than before the invasion, 43 percent said better, 36 percent worse and the rest about the same.”
- “Despite their pessimism, 47 percent of Iraqis still said it was somewhat or absolutely right for the U.S.-led forces to invade Iraq. But again respondents were divided on sectarian grounds, with 70 percent of Shi’ites in favour and only two percent of Sunni Arabs expressing any support for the war.”
- “Most Iraqis accuse other countries in the region of meddling in their affairs and fomenting violence. Among those surveyed, 71% say Iran is actively encouraging sectarian violence in Iraq, 66% say Syria encourages violence, and 56% say the same of Saudi Arabia.”
- (Source)
Further, SPIEGEL ONLINE writes that “only 42% of Iraqis still believe that their children will have a better life.” They fail to mention that fewer Iraqis – 37% – felt their children would have it worse – and the remaining 21% said it would be about the same. To see the complete poll results unfiltered by SPIEGEL ONLINE, click here.
The SPIEGEL article also fails to report the following findings from another poll of 5,000 Iraqis conducted by Opinion Research Business, a British market research company:
- Only 27 percent of Iraqis believe their country is in a civil war.
- 49% of those questioned preferred living under the current government to living under Saddam Hussein. Only 26% said things had been better with Saddam. (How does that fit to the headline above that certain Iraqis regret pulling down the Saddam statue?)
Obviously, the polling data is complex, sharply divided along sectarian lines and, at times, contradictory. There is no doubt that fewer Iraqis are optimistic now than in 2005. Most are affected by violence in some way and the majority are distrustful of foreign troops. This reflects the highly violent situation on the ground and real mistakes made over the years by the Bush administration and its partners.
However, when we look honestly at all of the polling data, it quickly becomes apparent that the reporting from SPIEGEL ONLINE is black-and-white, biased and highly selective. The publication cherry-picks and blends the facts it needs to fit the pessimistic, anti-American template that it has created for itself and its readers. Facts that contradict or complicate that template are left by the wayside, ignored or discarded.
This has become a troubling pattern: In its zeal to please the readers and adhere to an ideological line, SPIEGEL ONLINE and other German media chronically ignore key facts and fail to tell the entire story. They apparently think the entire truth would would upset readers already conditioned in their views through consistent exposure to only those facts that reaffirm pre-existing world views. In the process, reality becomes warped and news consumers find themselves unable to discuss Iraq with anyone who does not have exclusively negative views of the situation.
Endnote: Perhaps SPIEGEL ONLINE ought to cover this for the German readership. On the other hand, the fact that they are finally questioning the fraud that is and was the Lancet study is a breath of fresh air.
UPDATE: Looking at our comments, and looking around the German media, much of the recent Iraq coverage has much the same tone.
