Newsflash! US/UK troops unloved in Iraq!

The Daily Telegraph has been shown the results of a poll that the British Ministry of Defence recently (and secretly) commissioned in Iraq, which showed that:

• Forty-five per cent of Iraqis believe attacks against British and American troops are justified – rising to 65 per cent in the British-controlled Maysan province;
• 82 per cent are “strongly opposed” to the presence of coalition troops;
• less than one per cent of the population believes coalition forces are responsible for any improvement in security;
• 67 per cent of Iraqis feel less secure because of the occupation;
• 43 per cent of Iraqis believe conditions for peace and stability have worsened;
• 72 per cent do not have confidence in the multi-national forces…

The poll was conducted nationwide in August, by an Iraqi university research team that was kept unaware of the identity of the body that commissioned it. (I’m wondering about ethical concerns here? Might the university people who organized it now have been put in some jeopardy by the revelation that they were working for the British MOD?)
The D. Tel. article, by Sean Rayment, also notes:

The results come as it was disclosed yesterday that Lt Col Nick Henderson, the commanding officer of the Coldstream Guards in Basra, in charge of security for the region, has resigned from the Army. He recently voiced concerns over a lack of armoured vehicles for his men, another of whom was killed in a bomb attack in Basra last week.
The secret poll appears to contradict claims made by Gen Sir Mike Jackson, the Chief of the General Staff, who only days ago congratulated British soldiers for “supporting the Iraqi people in building a new and better Iraq”.

Indeed it does.
Rayment wrote:

Andrew Robathan, a former member of the SAS and the Tory shadow defence minister, said last night that the poll clearly showed a complete failure of Government policy.
He said: “This clearly states that the Government’s hearts-and-minds policy has been disastrous. The coalition is now part of the problem and not the solution.
“I am not advocating a pull-out but if British soldiers are putting their lives on the line for a cause which is not supported by the Iraqi people then we have to ask the question, ‘what are we doing there?’ ”

So they don’t really have a robust opposition party in the UK, either, at this point.
Still, at least Robathan seems prepared to raise much tougher questions of the party in power in Westminster than the leaders of the Democratic Party are yet prepared to raise in Washington…