Andy: You say: “Allawi could not have been more grateful today, and he

maintains that that is how the vast majority of Iraqis feel. He speaks for

Iraq, and I know of no reason at this point not to take him at his word on

this.”

Well, there have been opinion polls — see here. Samples: “A

Gallup poll conducted mostly in late March– before the recent sieges of

Fallujah and Najaf– showed that ‘a solid majority support an immediate

military pullout’ … Fifty-seven percent said the coalition should ‘leave

immediately’ rather than ’stay longer’ (36 percent). Among respondents in

Shi’ite and Sunni Arab areas– that is, leaving out Kurdish respondents–

the numbers favoring an immediate pullout were even higher: 61 percent to 30

percent among Shi’ites and 65 percent to 27 percent among Sunnis. In

Baghdad, where U.S. forces are concentrated, the numbers were highest of

all: 75 percent favored an immediate pullout, with only 21 percent opposed.

… Meanwhile, according to a new poll from the Iraq Center for Research and

Strategic Studies, which is partly funded by the State Department and has

coordinated its work with the Coalition Provisional Authority, more than

half of all Iraqis — including the Kurds — want an immediate withdrawal of

U.S. forces, up from 17 percent last October. The same poll found that 68

percent of Iraqis support Moqtada al-Sadr, including a third who say they

’strongly support’ him…”

Hard to square with Allawi’s assertion that “the vast majority of Iraqis”

are “grateful” to us.