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Get out of the country, warn Iraqis

An Iraqi boy holds a grenade launcher as he marches with a group of Shiite Muslim supporters of rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr at an anti-US demonstration in the Sadr City district of Baghdad on Tuesday. PHOTO: AP

US President George W. Bush is fond of telling Americans they have liberated Iraq and that the country's future generations will be thankful.

The view held by Iraqis, however, is that US forces are occupiers and should leave, according to a poll commissioned by the administration.

The poll, requested by the Coalition Provisional Authority last month but not released to the US public, found more than half of Iraqis surveyed believed both that they'd be safer without US forces and that all Americans behave like the military prison guards pictured in the Abu Ghraib abuse photos.

The survey also found that radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is surging in popularity as he leads an insurrection against US-led forces, but would still be a distant finisher in an election for Iraqi president.

"If you are sitting here as part of the coalition, [the poll] is pretty grim," said Donald Hamilton, a career foreign service officer who is working for the interim Iraqi authority and helps oversee polling of Iraqis.

"While you have to be saddened that our intentions have been misunderstood by a lot of Iraqis, the truth of the matter is they have a strong inclination toward the things that have the potential to bring democracy here," he said on Tuesday in Baghdad.

Hamilton noted the poll found 63 percent of Iraqis believed conditions would improve when an Iraqi interim government takes over on June 30, and 62 percent believed it was "very likely" the Iraqi police and army will maintain security without US forces.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: "Let's face it: That's the goal, to build those up to the point where they can take charge in Iraq and they can maintain security in Iraq."

The poll was conducted by Iraqis in six cities with respondents representative of the country's various factions. Its results conflict with the generally upbeat assessments the administration continues to give the US public. Just last week, Bush predicted future generations of Iraqis "will come to America and say, thank goodness America stood the line and was strong and did not falter in the face of the violence of a few."

The current generation seems eager for the US to leave, the poll found.

The coalition's confidence rating stood at 11 percent last month, down from 47 percent in November, while coalition forces had just 10 percent support. Ninety-two percent of those polled said they considered coalition troops occupiers, while just 2 percent called them liberators.

Nearly half of Iraqis said they felt unsafe in their neighborhoods. And 55 percent of Iraqis reported they would feel safer if US troops left immediately, nearly double the 28 percent who felt that way in January.

Forty-one percent said US forces should leave immediately, and 45 percent said that they preferred US forces leave as soon as a permanent Iraqi government was installed.

Frustration over security was later made worse by revelations of sexual and physical abuse of Iraqis by US guards at the Abu Ghraib prison.

The poll, taken shortly after the Abu Ghraib controversy began last month, found 71 percent of Iraqis said they were surprised by the humiliating photos and lurid tales of abuse at the hands of US forces, but 54 percent said they believed all Americans behave like the guards.

Anger at Americans was evident in other aspects of the poll, including a rapid rise in popularity for al-Sadr, the Muslim cleric who has been leading insurgents fighting US-led coalition forces.
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