{news} Straw and Rice with their heads in the sand

[Justine McCabe]

Good letter by an Chris Leadbeater (a British member of Al-Awda, Palestine Right to Return Coalition) in response to a BBC interview with Condie Rice and Jack Straw, and Guardian article showing that 85% of Iraqis polled don't won't the US/UK troops in their country.

Justine

 ---- Original Message ----- 
From: CharlieChimp1 at aol.com 
To: letters at guardian.co.uk 
Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 10:48 AM
Subject: [AL-AWDA-Media] Straw and Rice with their heads in the sand


letters at guardian.co.uk

30, Smithy Drive,
Ashford, Kent
TN23 3NS
England

                                23rd October,2005    01233  500229

Dear Sir,

In an interview on BBC today, Jack Straw and Condoleezza Rice claimed that US/UK troops were in Iraq because the Iraqi people wanted us there. What on earth world of make-believe do these two live in? You report the poll commissioned by MOD which reveals that 85% of the people don't want us and less than 1% believe we are helping their security.

Of course, Straw and Rice do not seem to have the same concept of democratic integrity that most of us have. We all hear the Iraqi 'president' insist that we stay but he is the product of the farcical election so highly praised by US/UK politicians but both impotent and unrepresentative in most people's opinion. The 'president' is a Kurd and has his own suspect motive for wanting our troops to stay. Certainly his power depends on us as does the probability that our presence will lead to the break-up of Iraq.

Not surprisingly, while I watched anyway, the BBC interviewer failed to challenge these claims which are so at odds with the government's own polls.

We have moved a long way from belief in genuine democracy AND in the BBC providing genuine independent interviewing of politicians.

Yours faithfully,

Christopher Leadbeater




http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1598906,00.html

Huge majority of Iraqis want coalition to go 

Ned Temko, chief political correspondent
Sunday October 23, 2005
The Observer 


The government has been dealt an embarrassing double blow in its battle to convince the public it is beating insurgency in Iraq and the threat of terrorism at home, according to confidential reports leaked to today's newspapers. 
One claimed nearly half of all Iraqis sympathised with violent attacks against British and US coalition troops; another said that at home, Tony Blair's high-profile strategy to counter the terrorist threat was proving disjointed and ineffective. 

Downing Street, while saying it would not comment on 'allegedly leaked reports', told The Observer last night that Britain remained firm in its commitment to stay in Iraq until the elected government felt it was ready to take over security responsibilities. 

The figures on Iraqis' views about attacks on coalition troops came from a nationwide opinion survey, commissioned by the Ministry of Defence and leaked to the Sunday Telegraph 

According to the report, fewer than one in 100 respondents felt the presence of American, British and other allied troops was improving security in the country. 

Forty-five per cent countrywide were said to believe that the attacks on the troops were justified - a figure that rose to 65 per cent in the Maysan, one of the provinces policed by the British. No fewer than 82 per cent, according to the report, declared themselves 'strongly opposed' to the presence of coalition troops. 

The findings prompted the Conservative shadow defence minister, Andrew Robathan, to call for a review of Britain's role in the country. 

'I am not advocating a pullout,' he emphasised. 'But if British soldiers are putting their lives on the line for a cause which is not supported by the Iraqi people, then we have to ask the question "What are we doing there?"' 

A separate leaked report, from the Prime Minister's policy delivery unit, sharply criticised the anti-terror policy drawn up after last year's Madrid train bombings and reinforced after the attacks on the London transport system in July. 

According to the Sunday Times, the report said: 'The strategy is immature. Forward planning is disjointed or has yet to occur.' It added: 'Accountability for delivery is weak. Real-world impact is seldom measured.'



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/private/ctgp-news/attachments/20051023/308adf1f/attachment.html>