Many Iraqis are far from confident that the United States is a positive force in their country, a recent State Department report reveals. In fact, about one in three Iraqis believe America secretly supports the Islamic State terrorist network (ISIS), which has ravaged the country over the last two years:
The [American] embassy [in Baghdad] confronts active disinformation campaigns and residual suspicions about U.S. policy that undermine its messaging. Recent Department polling shows that about 40 percent of Iraqis believe that the United States is working to destabilize Iraq and control its natural resources and nearly a third believe that America supports terrorism in general or the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant [ISIL or ISIS], specifically. [State Department]
Perhaps more significant than these beliefs, however, is the report's finding that "around half of Iraqi Sunnis and Shia now say that they completely oppose" the coalition fight against ISIS despite being "keenly aware of [ISIS'] true nature" and maintaining a nearly universally negative view of ISIS, its tactics, and its goals.
Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ABC News he was "not at all" surprised to learn that so many Iraqis believe America is secretly backing ISIS, as many are convinced ISIS is an American-fostered excuse to stay close to Iraqi oil and/or prop up the Sunni government.
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