Former Iraq Czar Paul Bremer Desperately Out of Touch with Iraqis

From the American News of Aberdeen:

Before he skipped town, America's viceroy in Baghdad, Ambassador Paul Bremer III, had this pronouncement about the people who have been his subjects for the last year or so.

''You won't find more than 2 percent of all Iraqis,'' he told the New York Times, ''for all their complaints they're making now, who think it would have been better if we had never come.''

Perhaps Bremer should have said ''2 percent of the Iraqis I talk to.'' The feelings of Iraqis are clearly a mystery to the departed occupation boss.

A majority of Iraqis, nearly 60 percent, now feel it was wrong that the U.S.-led coalition forces invaded Iraq, according to a recent poll. Back in February, nearly that number felt the invasion was right. That reversal does not mean, opinion poll experts point out, that Iraqis are unhappy Saddam Hussein is gone. But it does reflect the deep despair, even anger, over the United States occupation and Iraqi eagerness for Americans to leave.