Polling the obvious

A Poll appeared in yesterday's USA TODAY. This poll was conducted by USA TODAY, ABC News, The British Broadcasting Corp and ARD, a German TV Network. Iraqi interviewers walked door-to-door in 458 communities in all 18 provinces of Iraq. They worked from Feb.25 to March 5. They interviewed 2,212 Iraqis.

Before I go any further with this story.....let me interject something about polls and asking people what they think. In the United States people are not honest when being polled if they are slightly embarrassed about their answer or don't want anybody to know what they really believe. A prime example was when Tom Bradley ran for Governor after having been Mayor of Los Angeles for multiple terms. According to the exit polls on the day of the election...Tom Bradly had overwhelming won the Gubernatorial race. But the results of the election were quite a bit different. He got his ass kicked and it wasn't even that close. Tom Bradley was a dignified intelligent African American.

Nobody who gave an answer at the polling place ever worried for one second that someone would look them up later and kill their entire family and destroy all of their goats and sheep.

Taking a poll in Iraq has to be regarded with a slight question mark.

The poll is interesting for the obvious.

THE GOVERNMENT OF AMERICA WORKS BECAUSE THE TWO PARTIES ARE FAIRLY EQUAL IN REPRESENTATION.......I SAY FAIRLY BECAUSE IT CAN FLUCTUATE FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION BUT IT'S STILL FAIRLY EVEN....ESPECIALLY AMONG THE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY VOTE.

IN IRAQ THE SHIITE ARABS OUTNUMBER THE SUNNI ARABS BY MORE THAN 50 PERCENT....and my personal guess would be since the Sunni leader was hung( what was his name?) there are probably quite a few Sunni's who have decided to keep quiet regarding what they believe.

One of the questions they asked.

WAS THE EXECUTION OF SADDAM HUSSEIN CARRIED OUT IN AN APPROPRIATE MANNER?

SHIITE ANSWERING YES.........82%

SUNNI'S ANSWERING YES........2%

KURDS ANSWERING YES..........66%

The question and answer I found most intriguing was...

DO YOU SUPPORT THE PRESENCE OF COALITION FORCES IN IRAQ?

SHIITE ARABS SAYING YES...........17%

SUNNI ARABS SAYING YES.............3%

KURDS SAYING YES........................75%

ALL IRAQIS SAYING YES...............22%

IF YOU DISREGARD THE KURDS THEN THE REST OF IRAQ IS COMPLETELY AGAINST OUR BEING THERE.

SO THEREFORE.....HERE'S THE SOLUTION

GIVE THE KURDS FULL CONTROL OF THE FREAKIN COUNTRY AND LET THEM TAKE CARE OF THE SHIITE'S AND THE SUNNI'S. IN A FEW YEARS WE WOULD HAVE A VERY TIGHT AND STRONG ALLY.

Of course that might be a little extreme but it can't be any more extreme than the desire to create a democratic system in a country where the different belief system is created by someone believing some one's cousin or uncle was Mohammed's favorite relative.

There's no secular voice in Iraq and therefore there is no voice of reason.

A PERFECT PLACE FOR ANOTHER NEO-ILLUMINATION

"THE UNIVERSE HAS A SYSTEM OF ORDER AND CHAOS

THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE IS A TANGENT OF THAT SYSTEM.....THAT CAN BOTH ESTABLISH ORDER

AND CREATE CHAOS

BELIEF SYSTEMS DIRECTLY LEAD TO CHAOS

ACCEPTANCE

WITH INVESTIGATION AND INTROSPECTION

CREATES

MORE ORDER

The mysteries of the Universe will always outnumber the known realities and CHAOS will forever exist

OUR JOB, AS HUMAN BEINGS, SIMPLY MIGHT BE TO

AVOID EXTINCTION"

POLLING SHOULD INCLUDE QUESTIONS LIKE....

DO YOU THINK THAT HUMAN BEINGS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO LIVE IN A COUNTRY WHERE NOBODY GETS ALONG....OR SHOULD THE LAND BE USED FOR GROWING HEROIN?

OH SORRY...THAT'S THE OTHER PLACE IN QUESTION.

THE POLL QUESTION IN AFGHANISTAN SHOULD BE...

DO YOU THINK WARLORDS SHOULD BE ABLE TO POSSESS WEAPONS OF ANY SIZE OR SHAPE?

I don't believe anybody in Iraq will tell anybody what they really think unless they have the same last name. But then again looking at the situation it seems that eveybody has the same last name...or at least the same first name.....I apologise for my lack of empathy regarding the people of Iraq...but the situation really is insane and only 12% of the people who aren't KURDS want us in their country.

12 PERCENT.

BUT PLEASE KEEP IN MIND....POLLING CAN BE TRICKY........

just ask the family of Tom Bradley.

Michael Timothy McAlevey