Latest Iraq opinion polls. posted by Richard Seymour

It has come to this for the occupiers: they have lost the support of the Kurds. The poll is from the University of Michigan. The table is from Abu Aardvaark, who sums up the findings rather neatly:

The bottom line: 91.7% of Iraqis oppose the presence of coalition troops in the country, up from 74.4% in 2004. 84.5% are "strongly opposed". Among Sunnis, opposition to the US presence went from 94.5% to 97.9% (97.2% "strongly opposed"). Among Shia, opposition to the US presence went from 81.2% to 94.6%, with "strongly opposed" going from 63.5% to 89.7%. Even among the Kurds, opposition went from 19.6% to 63.3%. In other words, it isn't just that Iraqis oppose the American presence - it's that their feelings are intense: only 7.2% "somewhat oppose" and 4.7% "somewhat support."

On these findings, 84.5% of Iraqis strongly oppose the occupation. Other interesting findings, according to the University of Michigan's account is the dramatic decrease in support for religion in politics. Secular nationalism is the prevailing sentiment, it would seem. This is undoubtedly a result of the sheer fecklessness and incompetence and corruption of the SCIRI, who have allowed themselves to be conduits of US power and who have charged their Badr Corps with the task of slaughtering Iraqis. That bit may have tested the patience of some. But there is probably also a sense in which most Iraqis increasingly understand religion in politics to be a potentially divisive factor, undermining national unity and producing sectarian violence. This would explain why the nationalist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is reportedly growing in influence in Iraq, such that he is described as the most popular politician in the country. It is the sectarians of all groups and backgrounds that are increasingly reviled. This bodes well for attempts to form a national resistance coalition with political representation, something that has been in the works in Iraq for some time.