National Poll Shows Iraqis Confident About Security Situation

According to National Polls taken in October 2007, Iraqis are showing increased optimism in local security situations. According to the December quarterly report on Iraq from the Department of Defense, 62 percent of Iraqis are confident in the Iraqi police to protect them and their families from threats - a sign of increasing reconciliation in the nation and the increasingly stable security situation brought on by the 2007 Baghdad Security Plan, otherwise known as "The Surge."

But the additional 100,000 American troops that entered the nation are not the only, or even primary, contributor to this increased confidence in the Iraqi security situation, which owe much more to the Sunni Awakening Councils and the recent Concerned Local Citizens groups that are systematically dismantling the insurgency across the country. As Coalition forces continue to battle the Islamic State of Iraq (al-Qaeda in Iraq), pushing them deeper into isolated regions such as the Diyala Province, Iraqi citizens have taken over much responsibility for themselves in provinces such as Anbar and the formerly volatile capitol of Baghdad.

Concerned Local Citizens, or CLC, Groups have been springing up all over the country, responding to American financial incentives to assist in the rounding up of insurgents and clearing of deadly IEDs. Under the Commanders' Emergency Response Package (CERP), American forces have been authorized to offer contracts and free-lance monetary benefits for assistance by independent citizens and even turn coat extremists for their weapons, the locations of IEDs, and information on the enemy. In Baghdad alone, 17,000 of the total 69,000 CRCs aid Coalition and Iraqi Army/Police forces in driving insurgents out and into al-Qaeda stronghold Diyala.

In addition to their confidence in Iraqi security forces, further polls indicated a general feeling of security in their own neighborhoods: 61% of Iraqis describe their neighborhoods as being calm, with a further 64% feel safe walking their neighborhoods.

Amusingly, despite the majority of Iraqis believing their own neighborhoods to be safe, most don't believe others' neighborhoods are safe: although 34% of Iraqis feel safe leaving their neighborhoods, only 7% of Iraqis believe the country itself is stable, and most believe that "other" neighborhoods are not safe.

These polls are reported to have a 1% to 1.% margin of error.

Further, Iraqis also believe that police are making serious headway against crime, 65% say that they are confident that the Iraqi Police are "winning the battle against crime," in addition to the belief that they will sufficiently guard them from various threats.

The numbers do not only demonstrate Iraqi confidence in the current situation, but polls go on to state that 59% of Iraqis are optimistic for the future, believing that Iraq's security situation will improve.

Perhaps most intriguing is that the formerly highly volatile al-Anbar province, once the capitol of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Mujahideen Council, almost unanimously expresses their belief that they are safe, and regard themselves as among the most confident in their stability alongside Basrah, which the British military recently reduced their troop levels in.

Sources:

-Pentagon/Department of Defense
-Department of Defense Appropriations Act 2007 Quarterly Report
-Iraqi Nationwide Polls