A secret poll commissioned by senior British officers shows that millions of Iraqis believe that suicide attacks against British troops are justified, a newspaper reported yesterday.
The poll shows that up to 65 percent of Iraqi citizens support attacks and fewer than one percent think allied military involvement is helping to improve security in their country, the Sunday Telegraph said.
The nationwide survey, undertaken for the Ministry of Defense, demonstrates for the first time the true strength of anti-Western feeling in Iraq after more than two-and-a-half years of bloody occupation, the newspaper said.
The survey also suggests that the coalition has lost the battle to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, which British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush believed was fundamental to creating a safe and secure country, it said.
The newspaper also said Lieutenant Colonel Nick Henderson, the commanding officer of the Coldstream Guards in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, in charge of security for the region, has resigned from the army.
He recently voiced concerns over a lack of armored vehicles for his men, another of whom was killed in a bomb attack in Basra last week.
The secret poll appears to contradict claims made by General Sir Mike Jackson, the Chief of the General Staff, who only days ago congratulated British soldiers for "supporting the Iraqi people in building a new and better Iraq."
Andrew Robathan, a former member of the elite Special Air Service and the Conservative shadow defense minister, said on Saturday night that the poll clearly showed a complete failure of government policy.
"This clearly states that the government's hearts-and-minds policy has been disastrous. The coalition is now part of the problem and not the solution," Robathan was quoted as saying.
"I am not advocating a pull-out but if British soldiers are putting their lives on the line for a cause which is not supported by the Iraqi people then we have to ask the question, `what are we doing there?'" he said.
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