Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adventurer]

Last Updated: Monday, 17 March 2008, 10:10 GMT

E-mail this to a friend Printable version

Poll suggests Iraqis 'optimistic'

A majority of Iraqis expressed confidence in the police
More than 50% of Iraqis think their lives are good, more than at any time in the last three years, a survey says.
The poll for the BBC, ABC, ARD and NHK of more than 2,000 people also suggests that a majority believe that security in their area has improved since 2007.

And while most Iraqis still believe US troops are making things worse, the number who want the Americans to pull out immediately has fallen.

But the poll also shows Iraq's main ethnic groups are deeply divided.

BBC World Affairs editor John Simpson says the continuing divisions make it "pretty meaningless to talk about 'Iraqi' opinion."

Flicker of optimism
"What counts is how the individual groupings, Sunni, Shia and Kurdish, feel - and especially the Sunnis, since much of the violence is from that quarter," he says.

While 55% of all Iraqis believe that their lives are good, only 33% of Sunnis are happy with their lives, compared with 62% of Shias and 73% of Kurds.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7299569.stm