Reminders

There has been a fair amount of discussion about the recent USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll of over 3,400 Iraqis, much of which has revolved around either the finding that the portion of Iraqis who think of the US forces as occupiers rather than liberators has risen to 71% (for the pessimists) or that a majority say that are much or somewhat better off now (for the optimists).

What struck me, however, and what I think presents a greater danger to the future is a severe and serious disconnect between attitudes expressed by Kurdish areas and the rest of Iraq. A few examples:

- While 33% of all Iraqis say that, overall, the invasion did more good than harm, 97% of Kurds said that.

- 42% of all Iraqis say that Iraq is much or somewhat better off than before the invasion, 99% of Kurds say so.

- Only 31% of Iraqis said US-UK military action in Iraq can somewhat or completely justified. 95% of Kurds said that.

- As to whether or not attacks on US forces in Iraq can be justified at least sometimes, 52% of all Iraqis say yes, while less than 2% of Kurds agree.

- Asked if US-UK forces should leave within a few months, 57% of all Iraqis said yes - only 3% of Kurds agreed.

- The portion of Iraqis who now think of coalition forces as occupiers rather than liberators has gone up by 28 percentage points since the start of the war, to 71%. Kurdish attitudes have remained steady: 97% view them as liberators.

Perhaps part of the reason for the disparity is their differing recent experiences: In the four weeks preceding the survey, the portions of Iraqis who reported having had either no electricity, clean water, medicine, or food, ranged from 16% to 47%. In not one case did even 1% of Kurds report such difficulties.

In the midst of the standoffs and shootouts in Fallujah and Najaf, the underlying issues of the ongoing conflicts among religious and ethnic groupings in Iraq have been forgotten. But those conflicts have only been suppressed, not resolved, and suppressed only because Shiites and Sunnis see a common enemy: us.