Looking ahead to the possibility of a complete withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces from Iraq, 53 per cent of Iraqis surveyed in March 2007 believed that the security situation would improve within weeks immediately following withdrawal.
Tellingly, the Iraq Study Group Report, led by James A. Baker and Lee H. Hamilton in 2006, suggested, “If Iraqis continue to perceive Americans as representing an occupying force, the United States could become its own worst enemy in a land it liberated from tyranny."
To quote Global Policy Forum again: “Those who conceived these projects clearly had little sensitivity as to how Iraqis might react and little awareness of the powerful imagery and symbolism the US was creating. Such mammoth construction projects, costing billions of dollars, strongly suggest that their authors see Iraq as a US client state and as a base for US military operations in the Middle East region.”
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