BigSqwert

Link Nearly half of Iraqis support attacks on U.S. troops, poll finds BY DREW BROWN Knight Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON - A new poll found that nearly half of Iraqis approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and most favor setting a timetable for American troops to leave. The poll also found that 80 percent of Iraqis think the United States plans to maintain permanent bases in the country even if the newly elected Iraqi government asks American forces to leave. Researchers found a link between support for attacks and the belief among Iraqis that the United States intends to keep a permanent military presence in the country. At the same time, the poll found that many Iraqis think that some outside military forces are required to keep Iraq stable until the new government can field adequate security forces on its own. Only 39 percent of Iraqis surveyed thought that Iraqi police and army forces were strong enough to deal with the security challenges on their own, while 59 percent thought Iraq still needed the help of military forces from other countries. Seventy percent of Iraqis favor setting a timetable for U.S. forces to withdraw, with half of those favoring a withdrawal within six months and the other half favoring a withdrawal over two years. "Iraqis are demanding a timetable for U.S. withdrawal, and most believe that the U.S. has no plans to leave even if the new government asks them to," said Steven Kull, the director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, which conducted the poll. "This appears to be leading some to even support attacks on U.S.-led troops, even though many feel they also continue to need the presence of U.S. troops awhile longer." "If you put it all together, it's clear there is a center of gravity, not towards immediate withdrawal, but for the U.S. to be there in a way that affirms their intent to withdraw eventually," he said. "There is real consensus on that point." The poll was to be published Tuesday by WorldPublicOpinion.org, a Web site that reports on public opinion from around the globe. The survey was conducted Jan. 2-5, with a nationwide sample of 1,150 Iraqis from country's main religious and ethnic sects. According to the poll's findings, 47 percent of Iraqis approve of attacks on American forces, but there were large differences among ethnic and religious groups. Among Sunni Muslims, 88 percent said they approved of the attacks. That approval was found among 41 percent of Shiite Muslims and 16 percent of Kurds. Ninety-three percent of Iraqis oppose violence against Iraqi security forces, and 99 percent oppose attacks on Iraqi civilians. "They're pretty much the same results that have been going on since 2003, so it's consistent with a lot of the attitudes that exist," said Anthony H. Cordesman, a former Pentagon official and a longtime Iraq watcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a center for national-security studies in Washington. "We're not seen as liberators by the Sunnis, but what else is new?" Previous samples from Shiites who supported attacks on coalition troops have been much lower in the past, Cordesman said, but support for U.S.-led forces even among Shiites - who were oppressed under Saddam Hussein, a Sunni - has been mixed from the beginning. "It was clear after the invasion that about a third or more of Shiites did not see us as liberators, and did not see the war as justified, and somewhere around 15 percent supported attacks on coalition forces then," he said. "We're also seen as creating all kinds of internal problems without creating any kind of internal solutions." U.S. officials have acknowledged in the past that the mere presence of American troops in Iraq has helped fuel the insurgency, which is dominated by Iraq's Sunni minority. U.S. officials have sent mixed signals about long-term American intentions. During a visit with U.S. troops in Fallujah on Christmas Day, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said "at the moment there are no plans for permanent bases" in Iraq. "It is a subject that has not even been discussed with the Iraqi government," he said. According to the poll, 80 percent of Iraqis overall assume that the United States intends to keep bases in Iraq. The breakdown of people who have that belief is 92 percent of Sunnis, 79 percent of Shiites and 67 percent of Kurds. More than 80 percent of Sunnis favor a six-month withdrawal period; 49 percent of Shiites favor a longer withdrawal. Just 29 percent of all Iraqis surveyed say U.S. forces should be reduced only as the security situation improves, though more than half of the Kurds surveyed favor that option. The survey will be available at www.worldpublicopinion.org

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 10:34 PM) What was with that Rock-esque eyebrow from Tim Kaine? If you smelllllllllll what Tim Kaine is cookin'!

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 10:32 PM) How is not paying taxes capitalism? How about balancing the budget instead of buying votes by promising you money and benefits? If a candidate paid each voter $50 he'd be in jail, if he promises to give everyone $50 in tax cuts and have someone else pay for it, he's a genious. Somebody had to pay for those cuts, with interest and it's going to be you and me. We pay taxes to pay for our government, we don't collect taxes to stimulate the economy. Let's not pay for anything, let's borrow trillions of dollars, that's the Republican way. Amazing that now it's the Democrats that want to balance a budget and the Republicans that keep promising someone else will pay the taxes in the future. Spoken like a prodigy.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 10:30 PM) Politics aside, Im most pleased with the President getting serious about ramping up alternative energy research. That, above all, was what I wanted to hear. I concur. Hopefully it's not just talk.

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 09:36 PM) "If there are people in America talking to Al Quada we want to know about it. We will not sit back and wait to be hit again!" I have yet to hear a Dem disagree. It's the sidestepping of the law we have a problem with.

QUOTE(hi8is @ Jan 31, 2006 -> 03:20 AM) some of you may remember that i got kicked out of my house about 1 month ago.... since then ive, dissapeared from the internet, moved into a 2 bedroom apartment with a friend, and just today got a house phone and net connection so lets all in a roudy (or quiet/non-existant) fassion welcome him back!(i love talking in 3rd person... since im so f***ing egotistical) all ive got to say, is thank you to the accademy, to all my fellow soxtalkers, my family.... and of course... THE WORLD MOTHER f***ING CHAMP WHITE SOX! BIIIIITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hide your children!!!

Enjoy! http://ilksubaru.ytmnd.com/

QUOTE(KipWellsFan @ Jan 30, 2006 -> 12:58 PM) Shouldn't it say 'biased against'? Good catch.

Doesn't surprise me at all. Most racist white people I've met throughout my years seem to lean right. EDIT: And I am not saying all white republicans are racist.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jan 29, 2006 -> 11:42 PM) Old school sox logo, white cap? Also, f***ing awesome special by Gaffigan one of the best I've seen in sometime. Who knew a 5 minute Hot Pocket routine could be so funny? Yeah that was me. Hilarious show. I pre-ordered the dvd. Comedy Central edited some of it out for tv whereas the dvd will be uncut.

Anyone catch the Jim Gaffigan special on Comedy Central? They had a shot of me in the audience wearing my sox cap. During the hot pocket bit.

QUOTE(Cknolls @ Jan 28, 2006 -> 04:53 PM) Who said that and when? For the months leading up to the war this administration dropped the name Osama Bin Laden out of their vocabulary. Iraq and 9/11 became synonymous for them. All they talked about was fighting the war on terror and Iraq was the first name that kept coming up.

Oh my. What a stud.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Jan 28, 2006 -> 01:38 PM) We should poison BigSqwert too!

QUOTE(NUKE_CLEVELAND @ Jan 26, 2006 -> 01:36 PM) Who is attacking your freedom? You must have slept in on 9-11. :rolly Still waiting for evidence that Iraq was involved in 9/11. I have a feeling I'll be waiting a long time.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 27, 2006 -> 08:14 PM) Dude...do you not see the irony between you finding a problem with her joking about poisoning Stevens and you saying someone should poison her? It is my opinion that she would really want Stevens to be poisoned whereas I am just saying it about her in jest.

Link LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, speaking at a traditionally black college, joked that Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned. Coulter had told the Philander Smith College audience Thursday that more conservative justices were needed on the Supreme Court to change the current law on abortion. Stevens is one of the court's most liberal members. "We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee," Coulter said. "That's just a joke, for you in the media." Coulter has made a career of writing and lecturing on her strongly conservative views. At one point during her address, which was part of a lecture series, some audience members booed when she cut off two questioners. "I'm not going to be lectured to," Coulter told one man in a raised voice. She drew more boos when she said the crack cocaine problem "has pretty much gone away."

Link I thought i was the f*** king?? Asian with rude-sounding name changes it CHICAGO, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- A Chinese immigrant from Hong Kong has legally changed his name to Andy Kwok because everyone laughed saying his real name -- Fuk King Kwok. Kwok said that in China, his name translates to a very good meaning and nothing at all like the vulgar English pronunciation. The first name is pronounced in Cantonese with a long o sound, rather than a short u, the Chicago Sun-Times said. And my middle name is terrible, too, Kwok acknowledged. That combination becomes very terrible. Monica Pinas, 21, made the same decision as Kwok. She tired of hearing her name pronounced like penis instead of the Spanish peen-yas, and paid $328 in Chicago to have her name changed to Monica Star. Similarly, April Showers became Denise Moore last year, the newspaper said.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Jan 27, 2006 -> 10:33 AM) Does it bother you that what he presents as the truth, are actually lies? That most of that didn't happen? Not really. It was a good read.

QUOTE(Cknolls @ Jan 27, 2006 -> 11:55 AM) Bulls*** rolls downhill real nice.. I guess this instance of b.s. didn't bother me as much as if it were a famous person's memoirs. When I bought it I knew it was supposed to be a rehabbed drug addict's memoir. I always take things like that with a grain of salt. Like when you see a movie that is 'based on true events'. I just figure some, if not most, of it is exaggerated

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 26, 2006 -> 07:09 PM) its almost stream of conciousness. Most definitely. Had a great flow.

QUOTE(sox4lifeinPA @ Jan 26, 2006 -> 09:40 PM) On the otherhand, I saw "the Constant Gardener" last night... what a joke...at best, he gardened like 50% of the time. :rolly That made me laugh. I am slap happy.

QUOTE(RibbieRubarb @ Jan 26, 2006 -> 05:13 PM) It doesn't do it's homework. It places the homework in the basket. It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it is told. It places the lotion and the homework in the basket or it will get the hose! Put the f***ing homework in the basket! ROFLMAO Thanks! I needed a good laugh.