Poll: Broad Optimism in Iraq, But Also Deep Divisions Among Groups
On the Eve of the Elections, Most Iraqis Want Iraq To Stay Unified
Analysis By GARY LANGER and JON COHEN
Dec. 12, 2005 - - Surprising levels of optimism prevail in Iraq with living
conditions improved, security more a national worry than a local one, and
expectations for the future high. But views of the country's situation
overall are far less positive, and there are vast differences in views among
Iraqi groups -- a study in contrasts between increasingly disaffected Sunni
areas and vastly more positive Shiite and Kurdish provinces.

An ABC News poll in Iraq, conducted with Time magazine and other media
partners, includes some remarkable results: Despite the daily violence
there, most living conditions are rated positively, seven in 10 Iraqis say
their own lives are going well, and nearly two-thirds expect things to
improve in the year ahead.

Surprisingly, given the insurgents' attacks on Iraqi civilians, more than
six in 10 Iraqis feel very safe in their own neighborhoods, up sharply from
just 40 percent in a poll in June 2004. And 61 percent say local security is
good -- up from 49 percent in the first ABC News poll in Iraq in February
2004.



http://abcnews.go.com/International/print?id=1389228

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Can't win, Mr. Dean?