One of the speakers here is a member of the foreign government that conquered the country and is trying to kill or imprison any citizen who resists its rule; the other speaker works for it. The idea of crediting their claim that the citizens like having the foreign conqueror around is laughable. We do not ordinarily find out if people like being conquered by asking the conquerors or people who work for the conquerors.
The US tries to kill or imprison any Iraqi who fights against the US presence. It has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis. The US is an armed presence that controls the country. Obviously the dead, the imprisoned, those being shot at, those fighting the US, and their families don't feel joy about the US presence in Iraq. The rest of the Iraqis are all under a heavily armed US military occupation, so any expressions of joy that an employee of the conqueror claims they have made would not ordinarily be taken seriously except in propaganda.
However, what is amazing about public opinion in Iraq is that despite the fact that the US controls the Iraqi media, thus preventing the Iraqis from having information about what the US is doing to their country, and despite the fact that it is obviously dangerous to express hatred of the US, and despite the fact that so many Iraqis are dead, imprisoned, or being shot at by the US, thus preventing them from expressing any opinion at all, large numbers of the Iraqis who can speak have expressed rejection of the US anyway. Al-Sadr, the leader of one of the biggest resistance groups fighting the US, is one of the most popular people in Iraq. During the year after this article was written there were huge anti-US protests and other clear evidence of hatred of the US presence even among those who were not fighting back, imprisoned, or dead.
