Ten thousand people can’t be wrong – unless they’re Americans

I see World of Badger’s thingy counter is now into five figures. Whoo-Hoo! (I say thingy because pMachine calls it a hit counter, which it’s certainly not in the proper sense. Not bothered to find out what it counts exactly… page views? Database calls? Buggered if I know…)

From good stats to shameful stats now:

• A third of the American public believes U.S. forces found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, according to a poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. And, amazingly, 22 percent said Iraq actually used chemical or biological weapons during the war. Speaks volumes about the US media…
• An independent research group has claimed that between 5000 and 10000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the war.

Still on the subject of Iraq, Democracy Now! has a very interesting interview with the Independent’s Robert Fisk, in which he talks about the growing Iraqi opposition to the occupation:

The Americans still officially call them the remnants of Saddam or terrorists. But in fact, it is obviously an increase in the organized resistance and not just people who were in Saddam’s forces, who were in the Ba’ath Party or the Saddam Fedayeen.

…

One of the big problems at the moment is the Americans and, to some extent the British, particularly the Americans in Baghdad. They’re all ensconced in this chic gleaming marble palace, largest, most expensive palace. There they sit with their laptops trying to work out with Washington how they’re going to bring about this new democracy in Iraq. They rely upon for the most part former Iraqi exiles who never endured Saddam Hussein, who are hovering around making sure that they get the biggest part of the pie if possible. When they leave the palace, when they go into the streets of Baghdad, the dangerous streets of Baghdad, they leave in these armored black Mercedes with gunmen in the front and back, soldiers, plain clothes guys with weapons and sunglasses.

One Iraqi said to me the other day, who did you think was the last person we saw driving through town like [this]? I said, Saddam Hussein? They all burst out laughing, of course, they said, exactly the same.

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