Iraqis and Bush

Bush is feeling some mixed-reaction from Iraqis. As Jigga points out, even in America, where Republicans put forward 2:1 ratios of watching his speech yesterday, he only pulled numbers of 44% support for his rallying cry.

Over in Iraq, feelings are confused and mixed:

Many Iraqis in the capital, weary after more than two years of bloodshed and economic dislocation, view U.S. troops with a degree of mistrust but also as a bulwark against sectarian violence they fear might trigger civil war if they left.

Grateful, in the main, for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, many are dismayed by what they see as heavy-handed tactics and a failure by the U.S. occupiers to prevent Iraq becoming a new haven for foreign Islamists in the chaos that followed Saddam.

"Why don't they find another place to fight terrorism?" asked Abdul Ridha al-Hafadhi, 58, head of a humanitarian aid group. "I don't feel comforted by Bush's remarks; there must be a timetable for their departure."