A recent poll indicates remarkable progress in Iraq -- until it is put into a wider context, writes Felicity Arbuthnot "A rock, Breathing with the lungs of a lunatic; That is it, This is the twentieth century." --"A Mirror for the Twentieth Century" by Adonis Recently, a contradictory, but in important areas remarkably sunny, opinion poll on "progress" in Iraq was released. Conducted in April this year, the poll was a "divide and rule" sort of survey as it split respondents into Shia, Sunni and Kurdish Iraqis. The Shia were obviously largely supportive of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki from the Iranian-backed Daawa Party. However, for those in the West wanting to see a phoenix rising from Iraq's ashes, the survey claimed that there were incredible things happening, despite the illegal invasion, occupation, destruction, resultant mass graves of maybe one-and-a-half-million human beings, the million orphans, the over four million displaced, and the unimaginable, near-industrial scale carnage. Around half the respondents thought Iraq was going in the right direction and that Al-Maliki was doing well at the steering wheel. But don't mention the torture, secret prisons, hasty swathes of executions and a more than questionable judiciary. Nearly three-quarter of those polled said it "was more important to have a strong leader to keep Iraq stable, even if it meant giving up some freedoms." If this were the case, then arguably they would be better off under former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. He managed to keep the lights and water on for longer, the streets safer, and there were no grenades or car bombs, with the exception of occasional car bombs, allegedly courtesy of the CIA-backed and apparently British-passport-holding prime minister of post-invasion Iraq, Iyad Allawi, and his Iraqi National Accord. According to the survey, if an election were to be held in Iraq, Al-Maliki's Daawa Party would be a popular choice. An unasked question was whether that would be because of the cited frauds, death threats, and confiscations of the life-line ration cards until people voted the "right way," as had happened in previous "free-and-fair" post-invasion elections. In questions on key issues, 59 per cent of respondents opined that security had improved, while 50 per cent said that basic services had. Both these opinions starkly contradict reality. The British foreign office overview on security in Iraq tells British citizens that "we advise against all but essential travel to the whole of Iraq�ê� terrorists and insurgents maintain the ability to conduct attacks throughout Iraq, including regular attacks in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul and Kirkuk." "Major attacks within the last six months include: On 13 June 2012, a series of car bombs detonated across Iraq, including Hilla, Kirkuk, Karbala and eight bombs in Baghdad, killing over 80 people and injuring nearly 300; On 19 April 2012, a series of car bombs detonated across Iraq, killing 34 people and injuring 120; On 20 March 2012, a series of car bombs detonated across Iraq, including in Hilla, Kirkuk, Karbala, and Baghdad, killing at least 40 people and injuring more than 100; On 4 March 2012, gunmen attacked police check-points around the town of Haditha in Anbar province, western Iraq. 27 policemen, including two senior commanders, were killed and several others wounded. Al Qaeda-Iraq claimed responsibility for the attacks; On 23 February 2012, a series of coordinated attacks across Iraq, including in Baghdad, Salaheddin, Kirkuk, Anbar and Babil, killed at least 50 people and injured hundreds more; On 27 January 2012, a suspected car bomb attack in the Zafaraniya district of Baghdad killed and injured a large number of people; On 24 January 2012, a number of suspected car bomb attacks in the Sadr City area of Baghdad killed several people and injured many more; On 5 January 2012, 45 pilgrims died in a suicide attack in Nasiriya and 27 people died as a result of bombings in the Sadr City and Kadhimiya areas of Baghdad. More than 130 people were reported wounded in these attacks; On 22 December 2011, a series of coordinated bomb attacks in Baghdad killed and injured a large number of people; On 5 December 2011, bomb attacks against Shia pilgrims marking Ashura in Hilla and Baghdad killed and injured over 70 people; On 28 November 2011 in the Baghdad international zone, a car exploded near the Council of Representatives VIP entrance which killed one person and injured several others; On 26 November 2011 in Baghdad, three improvised explosive devices in Rusafa district killed eight and injured 13, and an attack on the Abu Ghaib-Falluja road to the west of Baghdad killed seven and injured 28; On 24 November 2011, three improvised explosive devices exploded in a Basra marketplace killing 19 people and injuring 65." According to advice, foreigners in Iraq are "high-value targets to terrorists, insurgents and criminals who conduct frequent and widespread lethal attacks." Yet, this site is clearly not updated regularly, since on 16 June, 51 people were killed and 154 injured in attacks across Iraq. On 17 June, 19 were killed and 53 injured in further violence. In 2011 Iraq had the second-highest death toll in the world for deaths resulting from terrorism, just behind liberated Afghanistan which topped the list, according to a US study. The US state department also "warns US citizens against all but essential travel to Iraq, given the dangerous security situation. Civilian air and road travel within Iraq remains dangerous. [There are] ongoing security concerns for US citizens in Iraq, including kidnapping and terrorist violence." "Threats of attack�ê� throughout Iraq continue, including in the [highly fortified] Baghdad International Zone." The attacks include "roadside improvised explosive devices (IEDs); explosively formed penetrators; magnetic IEDs placed on vehicles; human and vehicle-borne IEDs, mines placed on or concealed near roads; mortars and rockets, and shootings using various direct fire weapons. Numerous insurgent groups remain active throughout Iraq." Who could have conducted April's survey, which painted such an optimistic picture given this appalling violence? The answer is that it was none other than the National Democratic Institute (NDI), whose chair is Madeleine K. Albright, a former US secretary of state. Albright is also a former US ambassador to the UN, where she said that the lives of half a million Iraqi children were a "price�ê� worth paying" for US policy in Iraq. The NDI has even "established the Madeleine K. Albright grant, to recognise the contribution she has made in�ê� improving the lives of women across the globe." Tell that to the mothers of the dead children in Iraq. The Institute describes itself as "a nonprofit, nonpartisan organisation working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government." For a "nonpartisan" open and accountable Institute its supporters include a remarkable array of governments, which are at least arguably partisan, along with foundations and multi-lateral institutions. For a "nonprofit" organisation it seems eye-wateringly well-financed. Earlier this year, NDI employees in Egypt were accused of being spies working to destabilise Egypt, with the Egyptian authorities placing a travel ban on them as a result. The case is ongoing. One illuminating insight is that the "NDI began working with reform-minded Iraqi politicians in 1999 and established an in-country presence throughout Iraq in June 2003," in other words a month after former US president George W Bush had declared "mission accomplished" in Iraq. Since the US had no diplomatic or any other presence in Iraq in 1999, as had its representatives, like the British, fled ahead of the missiles and bunker-busters of the Desert Storm campaign in 1991, an educated guess would be that the NDI were working with the likes of "reform-minded" foreign passport holders such as convicted embezzlers and CIA-funded beneficiaries Ahmed Chalabi and Iyad Allawi and their ilk. On the NDI website, there is a link to a helpful "Select a Country" facility for the organisation's other areas of operation. There seems to be no oil or mineral-producing or strategically useful country that is too small or too far away for it not to be apparently reform-mindedly involved. The survey on Iraq's progress since its destruction in 2003 was carried out by Greenberg, Quinlan Rosner Research. Their Website also makes enlightening reading. Stanley B. Greenberg, chair and CEO, "has served as polling advisor to presidents and prime ministers and CEOs�ê� in the US and around the world, including president Bill Clinton and vice-president Al Gore, British prime minister Tony Blair, president Nelson Mandela, as well as national leaders in Israel, Europe and Latin America." Greenberg's corporate clients include Boeing, Microsoft and other global companies. In 1999, Greenberg co-founded Democracy Corps, an organisation "born out of outrage over the impeachment of president Clinton �ê� [it is] the leading organisation providing in-depth research and strategic advice to progressive groups, candidates and leaders. When Karl Rove listed in the Wall Street Journal ten steps to regain the Republican majority, step one was to create a Democracy Corps." When Greenberg's book Dispatches from the War Room: In the Trenches with Five Extraordinary Leaders was published, US journalist George Stephanopoulos concluded that "no single strategist has done more to lay the foundation for modern progressive politics across the globe." Stanley Greenberg "conducts polls for the Israel Project in the US, Europe and the Arab world. The New Yorker reported Ehud Barak's victory in 1999 as�ê� just another Greenberg client taking his place as the head of state." Apart from 1999 being an auspicious year for the forward march of US manipulation of the aspirations of faraway countries, careful reading of the background to the optimistic Iraq poll is dazzlingly illuminating of a far wider context. The author is a journalist with a special knowledge of Iraq.
