Re: Milan Rai on UN occupation of Iraq

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:

> It's mind-boggling for leftists such as Milan Rai to suggest that
> Western pollsters, whose governments are belligerent occupiers in
> Iraq, could get honest answers from the Iraqis whom they survey in
> the occupied territory.  How would the Iraqis know if the "pollsters"
> weren't informers?

I interviewed Gallup's director of international programs, Richard
Burkholder, who supervised their poll in Baghdad. He said that the
surveyors were Iraqis and it was never revealed that the sponsor of
the poll was an American firm. He also said that many interviewees
kept talking beyond the 60-minute scheduled duration of the
interview, and tried to get the surveyors to talk to friends and
relatives. He attributed their enthusiasm to the fact that no one had
asked their opinion on anything of significance in decades, maybe
ever.

Burkholder struck me as a serious social scientist who wanted to get
things right. Listen and judge for yourself:
<http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html>. Scroll down to
November 6, 2003.

I realize that the polls say things that a lot of leftists, who
already know what Iraqis think or should think, don't want to hear.
But Christian Parenti, who's spent five or six weeks in Iraq
reporting there, said the results comported with his impressions of
the place. To which I can already imagine the retort that Christian's
gotten a Soros grant, so is now a tool of the empire.

Doug