People Hate Iraq

According to Gallup, Americans don't just dislike the Iraq War, they downright dislike Iraq. Not as much as they dislike Iran, but they're pretty unenthusiastic about the place. What's more, though Americans have distaste for the Palestinian Authority, they don't fear it. But when asked to name America's top enemy in the world Iraq took second place (have people not heard that Saddam's been deposed) behind Iran but ahead of China and North Korea. No real point to make about this, just thought it was an interesting glimpse at the public mood.

Comments

Fascinating. Interesting that Americans dislike Afghanistan just about as much as they dislike Iraq.

Posted by Al | April 10, 2008 2:50 PM

Not all that surprising when you consider one of the many rationales for our continuing participation in the Iraq War is that we need to fight groups like Al Qaeda in Iraq. That makes it sound like we need to keep fighting Iraqis until they no longer pose a serious national security to us, which in turn makes it sound like Iraq is indeed our enemy.

Of course I know that completely contradicts some other narratives, but what is new? And it doesn't surprise me that the American people would tend to fix on the rationale for war that makes the most sense, at least in theory if not in fact, namely that we are fighting in Iraq to protect ourselves (as opposed to something like trying to resolve their civil war and build their nation for them).

Posted by DTM | April 10, 2008 2:51 PM

Americans are stupid. They think we are at war with Iraq and therefore hate Iraq. These stupid Americans get the stupid leaders they deserve.

Posted by blah | April 10, 2008 2:59 PM

I think the question is a bit badly phrased. Sure, the US is not at war with Iraq, the state. But certainly a lot of Americans are dying in Iraq, the location. People might reasonably be answering with respect to the second question, rather than the first.

Posted by Rolf Andreassen | April 10, 2008 3:02 PM

What about France?

Posted by DP | April 10, 2008 3:12 PM

And the Canadians think we never give them any love.

Posted by asl | April 10, 2008 3:21 PM

Read the darn caption. The survey didn't ask if people disliked the countries, only if they did like them.

absence of like!= presence of dislike

Posted by Matt B | April 10, 2008 3:31 PM

The entire concept behind the question is weird. Is this asking if people like the government of a country, or its culture, or its economy, or whether we think the people there look funny? Or whether we think the people there think the U.S. is the bestest country in the whole wide world?

Great Britain: Funny TV shows! Thumbs up!
Germany: They make BMWs, right? Cool. Thumbs up!
South Korea: Is that the good one or the bad one? I can't remember--better go with thumbs down.

Posted by My Alter Ego | April 10, 2008 3:45 PM

I wonder how many of the 92% of Americans who have a favorable view of Canada know that Canada is our leading source of foreign oil.

Posted by Fred | April 10, 2008 4:33 PM

Considering that we're killing people in Iraq, people are killing us in Iraq, and we refuse to take our army out of Iraq, it seems like people are substantially correct to describe Iraq as our enemy.

Posted by neil | April 10, 2008 4:36 PM

Check out the link Matt B - it gives unfavourable figures too (77% unfavourable for Iraq).

Posted by DC | April 10, 2008 6:37 PM

Why Americans have such favorable views of Canada is beyond me. If you did such a survey in Canada, the favorability of the United States would very likely be near the bottom of the list. Canadians hate the US and don't like Americans very much, either. Their entire cultural life is a pathetic attempt at reaction against American culture. If they defined themselve as anything other than "not American", they might actually contribute something to world civilization. But they don't. And that's why the 92% favorability rating is just another example of American ignorance.

Posted by Chuck | April 10, 2008 7:29 PM

How interesting that Saudi Arabia (home of most of the 9/11 terrorists),Pakistan and Afghanistan presumably are held in better esteem by Americans. Your government's lies have become the accepted truth. Quelle surprise.

Posted by Frances Adams | April 10, 2008 8:35 PM

Chuck,

Most Canadians are wonderful salt of the earth people, though, in my experience. Canadian women are also very attractive.

Posted by Hector | April 10, 2008 10:21 PM

Other Arabs have traditionally hated Iraq. They tell jokes about Iraq's hatefulness:

A scorpion asks a frog to let him ride on his back across the Euphrates. The frog says, Are you mad? A scorpion's sting can kill me. But the scorpion answers, I can't sting you though, don't you see? Because then I'd drown. So the frog takes the scorpion on his back and frog-swims out into the Euphrates, but halfway across the scorpion's habits get the better of him and he stings the frog anyway. As the frog dies from the scorpion's poison he turns around and asks him, Why? Oh, why? And as the scorpion goes down drowning, he answers, Because it's Iraq!

Posted by Steve Sailer | April 10, 2008 10:25 PM

To know Iraq is not to love it.

In 1931, King Feisal of Iraq described his subjects as "devoid of any patriotic idea, connected by no common tie, giving ear to evil; prone to anarchy, and perpetually ready to rise against any government whatever."

Posted by Steve Sailer | April 10, 2008 10:28 PM

Canadian women are also very attractive.

If you like to mate with buffalo.

Posted by blah | April 10, 2008 10:34 PM

Why is Iran less popular than North Korea? And who are the 12% of people who have a positive view of NK?

Posted by Reality Man | April 10, 2008 10:42 PM

Blah,

Oh come on. Take Ellen Page for example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Page

Posted by Hector | April 10, 2008 10:56 PM

If you did such a survey in Canada, the favorability of the United States would very likely be near the bottom of the list. Canadians hate the US and don't like Americans very much,

Canadians are the foreigners Americans are probably most likely to know and socialize with, and their experience with Canadians likely does not match up with your caricature.

Posted by Tyro | April 10, 2008 11:50 PM

How the heck did Iraq become our enemy again? This is a tragedy masquerading as a dark, absurd comedy.

Posted by Jimm | April 11, 2008 2:43 AM

This is a classic example of how utterly moronic and how utterly brainwashed the average American is.

Not to mention that most of these nitwits couldn't even find these countries on a map - with the possible exception of Canada.

Most of these jerks deserve to be nuked. Where is Skynet when we need it?

As for Canada, the last time I was up there twenty years ago, the fucktards slashed all four of my tires because the car had US plates on it.

Plus, they say "eh" all the time as Bob and Doug McKenzie proved.

Plus, most Canadian "cities" would be considered "towns" in the US - and they dry up and blow away at 5PM. At least Calgary does - or did when I was up there years ago.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | April 11, 2008 5:11 AM

Re: Canadians hate the US and don't like Americans very much, either.

Canadian national identity is tied to the mantra "We're not the US", so that is to some extent inevitable. However I've never found that Canadians dislike Americans as a people. Not even the Quebecois, supposedly arrogant and insular, struck me as hateful toward us. I was in Canada camping on Lake Superior on 9-11. As I made my way down to Toronto that week I was deeply affected by the outpourings of sympathy: American flags flying in the small Ontario towns (how many Americans would have a Canadian flag at hand to fly, or could purchase one esaily?) "God bless America" signs in front of the clapboard churches; a mountain of flowers before the American consulate in Toronto; even a drag queen in one of the gay clubs there doing her best to massacre the Star Spangled Banner (doesn't everyone?) and taking up a collection for NYC. There's a lot of sibling rivalry and even some resentment in Canada toward the US, but that wasn't hate I found in Canada that week.

Re: As for Canada, the last time I was up there twenty years ago, the fucktards slashed all four of my tires because the car had US plates on it.

Did they tell you that was the reason? If your attitude is as abrasive in person as online you may have simply offended people.

Re: Plus, most Canadian "cities" would be considered "towns" in the US - and they dry up and blow away at 5PM.

Couldn't tell you about the straight scene up there, but Toronto and Montreal both host gay nightlife that is the best anywhere in the world.

Posted by JonF | April 11, 2008 6:45 AM

JonF,

If you think that the 'We're not the US' culture is big in Canada, you should go visit Puerto Rico sometime. I think Montreal and San Juan are two of the only cities n the world where the Stop signs don't say 'Stop', they say 'Arret' or 'Alto'.

Canadians are, indeed, a very nice people and I'm not surprised by their outpourings of sympathy on 9-11.

Posted by Hector | April 11, 2008 8:14 AM

This, to my mind, is the biggest problem with current anti-war framing. The situation we have now is not a war (two armies from two countries fighting each other), we haven't had a war in a long time. What we do have is an occupation. Calling it a war, however, makes arguing for withdrawal so much harder. If you say we should withdraw you'll be accused of wanting to lose the war, which politically a tough sell. The pro-war side will say "look, the job isn't done, we have to stay until we win the war." The anti-war side can respond "we never should have waged this war, let's get out" or "We can't win, let's get out" but either one is a harder sell than "We won the war, now let's end this fruitless occupation".

Of course, stupidly, we can't call it an occupation either because that would imply our soldiers are unwelcome there, which happens to be true, but it's something the pro-war side still denies.

I suppose if we on the anti-war side managed to call this occupation what it is from the beginning, we'd be in better shape to withdraw our troops now, but as the cliche goes, it is what it is.

Posted by TurkoAmericano | April 11, 2008 8:58 AM

So you think many in a elite subgroup like the liberal blogosphere frequenters would say that they like Iraq??? They would answer that they have favorable feelings toward that which is called Iraq???

The surprise you suggest in your post is what is amazing to me.

Posted by artappraiser | April 11, 2008 5:45 PM

"Toronto and Montreal both host gay nightlife that is the best anywhere in the world."

That's because those are the TWO - and only TWO - cities that ARE the biggest cities in Canada. Everything else is a "town" barely larger than my home town of Bristol, Connecticut (50,000+/-).

Well, I exaggerate. Wikipedia does show maybe ten other places with one million or more, including Calgary these days - if you count the whole "metro area" (by which count San Francisco has seven million - but really only three quarters of one million actually in San Francisco County). But when I was up there twenty years ago, Calgary was nothing. But you've got Vancouver and the like hanging in there.

As for my car, there was nothing about it to distinguish it from anybody else except the plates. Nobody at the apartment building knew me at all, as I was up there on contract for a company and living in a company-provided apartment. I had no contact with anybody there except the people I was working for. So my "abrasive personality" had nothing to do with it.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | April 11, 2008 11:12 PM