Discouraging findings about continued American presence
"Anthony Cordesman, "Iraqi Perceptions of the War: Public Opinion by City and Region," May 2, 2007, released by CSIS. Available at: http://www.csis.org/component/option,com_csis_pubs/task,view/id,3868/type,1/
Some of the study's observations:
* Most Iraqis still want a unified country - only the Kurds want federalism;
* 78% of Iraqis oppose the presence of U.S. forces on their soil, though far fewer favor an immediate pullout;
* Most Iraqis thought the surge -- sending additional US troops to Baghdad and Anbar -- would not improve security in these areas (36% think the surge will help things in Baghdad; in Anbar, where the Sunni Arab opposition is rooted, essentially everyone thought it would make security worse);
* 51% of Iraqis call it "acceptable" to attack U.S. and coalition forces -- led by near unanimity among Sunni Arabs;
* 67% of Iraqis say post-war reconstruction efforts in their area have been ineffective or nonexistent;
* MNF-I, US and Iraqi government statistics on violence in Iraq fail to make a serious effort to estimate threats, kidnappings, woundings, intimidation, or sectarian and ethnic crimes. These "lower" forms of violence became far more common in Iraq than killings, and represent the bulk of the real-world challenge to the ISF"