US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of the leading exponents of the war in Iraq, Sunday wrapped up a tour intended to portray a nation on the mend. While here, Mr. Wolfowitz visited a refurbished museum, spoke to citizens who told him how glad they are that Saddam Hussein was ousted, and toured training facilities for new Iraqi policemen.

But an attack on his heavily guarded hotel Sunday morning was a clear counterpoint to his upbeat message. And despite numerous successes, a new poll shows that while Iraqis are happy to be rid of Mr. Hussein, they're increasingly unhappy with the coalition.

In a recent seven-city poll, the Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies found that 50 percent of Iraqis oppose the presence of coalition forces, with 33 percent supporting their presence. The numbers also indicate steep declines in support.

"The Iraqi people suffered for a long time under the previous regime, and they have no space left for patience,'' says Sadoun al-Dulame, who coordinated the poll. "The Iraqi people want America's liberal values, not more American soldiers." Mr. Dulame points out that 95 percent of Iraqis identify fair and regular elections as the nation's top political priority.

This mixed attitude is exemplified by Ahmed al-Dhim, a date salesman who's doing a brisk business with shoppers preparing for the holy month of Ramadan, which starts Tuesday. Dates are the traditional way for Muslims to break their dawn-to-dusk fast. "The coalition is doing a dreadful job, look at that explosion this morning. I wonder what they came here for?"

But when asked how the date business was last year, he said he wouldn't know. "I was being forced to serve in Saddam's army. If I'd deserted they would have tortured me. God, I hated it."

Wolfowitz was upbeat when he arrived in Baghdad on Friday. He told reporters that the military "is taking the fight to the enemy,'' and he expanded on US successes during visits to the oil-rich northern town of Kirkuk and to Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in the Sunni Triangle, where the bulk of attacks have been launched.

In Kirkuk, he toured the restored museum with a multiethnic group of religious leaders, and in Tikrit he praised the creation of local security forces: "These young Iraqis are stepping forward to fight for their country along with us.... It's a wonderful success story that speaks volumes." But hours after Wolfowitz flew out of Tikrit, a US Blackhawk helicopter crash-landed after being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

This was followed by the attack on the Al Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad, which literally brought the fighting to Wolfowitz's doorstep. The hotel lies inside the heavily guarded "green zone" where most of the top officials of the US led coalition live and work. It was hit by at least six rockets shortly after dawn on Sunday morning, killing a US colonel, the highest-ranking officer yet killed in Iraq. Fifteen other people were injured.

Wolfowitz, staying in an upper floor of the hotel at the end of his four-day tour, was unhurt and was hustled out of the building ahead of a general evacuation of roughly 200 residents.

Page: 1 | 2