Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: AFP
Byline: n/a
Date: 24 October 2006
LONDON - A clear majority of Britons want the country's troops to pull out
of Iraq by the end of the year, regardless of whether they have finished
their mission, according to a poll published on Tuesday.
Some 61 percent of the 1,019 people surveyed by polling firm ICM for The
Guardian said British soldiers should leave Iraq before 2007 -- 45 percent
want them to withdraw immediately, and a further 16 percent say by the end
of the year -- even if the United States requests that they stay on.
By contrast, just 30 percent backed keeping the troops there as long as is
considered necessary.
That compares to 51 percent backing troop withdrawal in a similar poll
published in The Guardian in September 2005, when 41 percent supported
keeping troops in the country until the job was completed.
The Guardian said that support for withdrawing British troops from Iraq
soon was particularly strong among women, with 51 percent saying soldiers
should leave immediately, and only 24 percent responding that troops should
stay on.
The poll comes a day after Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said
that nearly half of the country's 18 provinces will be under Iraqi control
by the end of the year, despite growing concerns about increased violence
there.
Byline: n/a
Date: 24 October 2006
LONDON - A clear majority of Britons want the country's troops to pull out
of Iraq by the end of the year, regardless of whether they have finished
their mission, according to a poll published on Tuesday.
Some 61 percent of the 1,019 people surveyed by polling firm ICM for The
Guardian said British soldiers should leave Iraq before 2007 -- 45 percent
want them to withdraw immediately, and a further 16 percent say by the end
of the year -- even if the United States requests that they stay on.
By contrast, just 30 percent backed keeping the troops there as long as is
considered necessary.
That compares to 51 percent backing troop withdrawal in a similar poll
published in The Guardian in September 2005, when 41 percent supported
keeping troops in the country until the job was completed.
The Guardian said that support for withdrawing British troops from Iraq
soon was particularly strong among women, with 51 percent saying soldiers
should leave immediately, and only 24 percent responding that troops should
stay on.
The poll comes a day after Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said
that nearly half of the country's 18 provinces will be under Iraqi control
by the end of the year, despite growing concerns about increased violence
there.