Polls apart
THE DEATHS of US and British soldiers in Iraq have cut support for the war this spring both in the USA and Britain. A recent CNN/Gallop poll showed that 56% of Americans polled believed “that the situation in Iraq is/was worth going to war over.” This was well down on the 76% who believed that in April.
In May most people believed that post-war Iraq was “going well”. Now 53% of Americans polled think that things are going “not very well” or “not well at all.”
In Britain, where there has also been a huge controversy over the government’s “dodgy” dossier on weapons of mass destruction, public support for the Iraq war has fallen sharply according to a Populus opinion poll in The Times.
The number of people who thought it was right to go to war in April in the haze of victory peaked at 64% – then 24% were against. In June support had gone down to 58% with 34% decidedly against. Now support is only 47% according to the polls while 45% are definitely opposed to the war.
Safety last
THE BRITISH government has had to ditch its inhumane plans to send thousands of Iraqi asylum seekers who had fled Saddam Hussein’s rule back to Iraq “within weeks”.
Unfortunately for them the occupying forces, the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, have told Britain’s Home Office that neither Iraq nor their administration are ready for an influx of refugees.
Blair and Home Secretary Blunkett were trying to put short-term political point-scoring above the safety of Iraqi people.
As a spokesperson from Refugee Action said: “There is no one who would argue that Iraq is safe for refugees.” Blunkett and Blair, however, were desperate to claim that a reduction in the number of asylum seekers was one of the ‘gains’ of this war.
