Putting Al-Bayati’s Visit Into Context

According to the Nov. 28 edition of Spectator, Hamid Al-Bayati, the Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations, claimed in his recent speech at Columbia that “the vast majority of the Iraqi people will be grateful” for the United States invasion of Iraq, and that Iraqis are “jubilant” about the U.S.’ role.

Unfortunately, Al-Bayati’s claims are false. According to the last comprehensive BBC poll of Iraqis, in August, 57 percent of Iraqis support attacks on U.S. soldiers, 70 percent of Iraqis believe the “troop surge” has made things worse, while 11 percent believe it has had no effect, 79 percent of Iraqis oppose or strongly oppose the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq, and 85 percent of Iraqis have little or no confidence in the occupation forces.

All of these numbers have increased between each survey on the question in the three BBC polls over the course of the war.

Ambassador Al-Bayati has no legitimate claim to speak for Iraqis. Not only does he stand in a small minority in supporting the U.S. occupation, but he was also appointed to his position by an unpopular, sectarian government, which was elected under occupation and operates under an effective U.S. veto. U.S. officials from General David Petraeus to Senator Joe Biden have displayed no shame in declaring explicitly their coercive intentions towards the Iraqi government, which is utterly dependent on U.S. support for its survival.

This is context that Spectator should have provided in the original article. While it is easy to find polling information, readers may not bother, making what should be a reasonable assumption, that a claim printed in a newspaper without contradiction is at least arguably true. Newspapers have a responsibility to inform their readers when their sources’ claims are provably false.

The author is a student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science majoring in computer science.