By DPA
Washington : In a poll of 2,212 Iraqis, 61 percent said their lives are going badly and 56 percent said security is still the nation’s top problem.
The poll, commissioned by ABC News, the BBC and the Japanese broadcaster NHK, found that 31 percent believe security in their local area has got worse in the last six months while 24 percent believe it’s got better.
The poll, released Monday – the day of long-awaited congressional testimony by General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq – is the latest in a series of in-depth polls carried out by ABC and other media using local Iraqis to conduct at-home half-hour interviews with polling subjects.
Petraeus briefed the US Congress on the results of a six-month surge of troops focussed on Anbar and Baghdad, and whether it has increased security in Iraq.
There were some bright spots in the poll. Compared to six months ago, when none of the respondents in Anbar Province had anything positive to say about security, 38 percent in Anbar now gave positive ratings to security.
US President George W. Bush spotlighted Anbar last week with a visit to show how local Sunni tribal leaders had withdrawn support from Al Qaeda operations and were now working with US troops.
In Baghdad six months ago, 84 percent of respondents said they felt completely unsafe in their neighbourhoods. That figure dropped to 58 percent in the current poll.
Iraqi expectations have dropped, the poll said: While 69 percent thought they would see improvements in the year ahead when asked in November 2005, that number dropped to 40 percent six months ago, before the surge, and 23 percent in the current poll.
The margin-of-error in the poll was 2.5 percent, the poll organizers, D3 Systems of Virginia and KA Research Limited in Istanbul, said.
Interviews were done in Anbar province, Basra city, Kirkuk and the Sadr city section of Baghdad.