Rising Iraqi Civilian Death Toll Dampens Public Opinion Toward Insurgency

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

A car bomb exploded outside a Baghdad restaurant on New Year's Eve, killing at least eight Iraqi civilians. It is just one of a string of attacks that have killed far more Iraqis than coalition troops. The civilian death toll is starting to turn Iraqi public opinion against the anti-coalition insurgency.
Six months ago, most of the insurgent attacks in Iraq targeted coalition troops. At that time, most of the casualties were American soldiers, who at one point were being killed at a rate of more than one a day.

Iraqi civilians, fed up with the U.S.-led occupation, called them resistance attacks. Even if they did not actually support the insurgency, many people here sympathized with the attackers

More: http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=80FA1940-0FA9-46EF-BBB9ADE5FBDA6ADF

Considering U.S. Forces have killed somewhere around 8-10,000 Iraqi civilians, I imagine they are not to happy with us as well.

Here's a thought: Remove the occupation and the insurgents would be relegated to just fighting between themselves and there would be far fewer civilian deaths! After all, we're supposed to be there for the Iraqi people, right? Right? Hello?

[The Blue Flower]

1. propaganda

This is from Voice of America.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

2. I lean to agree with you.

[Mikimouse]

3. Hmmmm, ok, but in a few years we may be surprised...

to find that the bombings of civilians in Iraq, and the subsequent 'turning of the tide of public opinion' among the Iraqis, were perpetrated by the CIA. Yeah, yeah, tinfoil hat firmly in place.:hippie: :tinfoilhat:

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Second theory

what you are seing is are two things?

A war against the occupiers

A civil war...

And the same happened in nam

[loudnclear]

5. Rising civilian death toll didn't stop the US and UK.

Why should it matter to so-called "terrorists?"

[are_we_united_yet]

6. Uhhhhhh yeah. I can hear it now from the Iraqi citizens...

"Damn those Iraqi insurgents/Baathist elements/Saddam Loyalists/!" or (put your overused, commercialized American media pejorative term here). Lets give Bush and Bremer a chance and throw our support behind them. After all the W Admin is soooooo sincere.

[Columbia]

7. I take it

You didn't hear about the anti-terrorism rally a couple weeks ago in Baghdad?

http://www.healingiraq.blogspot.com

"Al-Jazeera described the demonstrations as protests against "what is called terrorism" and estimated the number of protestors as 10,000. AFP estimated the number as 200 at first (which made us furious) then later they gave the count as 4,000. While it was very obvious that the protestors were much more than 10,000. The Anti-terrorism Popular Committee stated that there were more than 20,000 demonstrators marching."

"It was wonderful watching Iraqis from different backgrounds, ethnicities, age groups, and political beliefs all marching for the same cause. Seeing Muslim clerics walking along Communists shouting "No to terrorism, Yes to peace and democracy" was priceless. And no one expected that political parties from the opposition would show up as well."

[Bozvotros]

9. They are literally dying for a little democracy...

And they can have it, as long as they elect who we want, do what we want, keep the oil trading in dollars, allow Christian missionaries unfettered access, not trade with France or Germany and trust the goodwill of the corporate bandits ransacking their country.

[Aidoneus]

11. You helped to kill thousands of Iraqis

Now you speak for them?!

[Columbia]

13. What a despicable comment

That blog is from an Iraqi living in Iraq right now.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

17. Chalabi is an Iraqi living in Iraq right now....

I don't believe a fucking word that "man" says either.

[are_we_united_yet]

12. 10-20000 protesters? A mere focus group.

If there were 100000 people, it doesn't translate into Iraq throwing flowers at the US's feet which is how I interpret the intent of the original headline.

[NickB79]

14. Anti-terrorism does not automatically mean pro-US

It never occurred to you that many Iraqis view the US soldiers as the true terrorists? After all, we have been bombing their homes, killing their families, kicking in doors in the middle of the night to search their homes, and surrounding their villages with razor-wire. I noticed that there was very little praise or even mention of the US troops in what I've read on that blog.

""No to terrorism, Yes to peace and democracy""

You do realize that, if we were to allow the Iraqis to hold free elections in that country, they would probably democratically elect leaders who are mainly fundamentalist Islamic clerics simply due to their overwhelming numbers, don't you? But hey, its democratic, right?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

16. I'll bet dollars to donuts you can find Chalabi in half the links offered

on the blog page.

Sorry, I don't buy your source, I'll take AFP's version.

[SwellGround]

8. If true then it's good news.

Whatever it takes to stop the killing of innocents and our troops is fine by me. It's time for Iraq to become a democracy and end the needless murdering of its citizens.

[alfredo]

15. the wildcard is the reaction of the losing side in any election.

Civil war is more likely than democracy. The Sunni will pay, and to many, payback is much more important than democracy.

[conservdem]

10. Are you sure about this:

"Remove the occupation and the insurgents would be relegated to just fighting between themselves and there would be far fewer civilian deaths!"

The may civilian death rate seen over the last four moths may well increase if the troops are removed.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

19. The majority of strikes are pointed at the occupiers and

the supporters of the occupiers (IMHO).

[conservdem]

24. I think your are probably right about that, but if our troops leave,

do you think the insurgents will just stop the killing or will the kill until they are in control? And what to you think the insurgents will be like if they are allowed to take control?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

25. The ME has been in one state of war or another forever, it seems...

I doubt seriously that we are going to change that.

We are there to secure the oil fields under guise.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

18. "starting to turn..." Jesus, where have these people been?

In bomb shelters for the last year?
:evilgrin:

[GRClarkesq]

20. I dont know about Iraqi "public opinion"

but I can see the Iraqi "insurgents", or whatever were calling them this week, intentionally attacking their own civilians. Standard insurgent tactic used to undermine the civilians trust in the current power. Civilians lose confidence because government (CPA/US military in this case) cannot protect them.

[stickdog]

21. Car bombs = US black ops (nt)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

22. I hope not. I have plenty of tin foil, but I'm not quite ready to go

there yet.

[stickdog]

23. Crack open any book on the history of US black ops. (nt)