They don't love us

It's hardly earth-shattering to be told that Iraqis aren't wild about having U.S. troops here. And, to be sure, they're conflicted. Depending on where someone lives and what tribe or sectarian group they hail from, different Iraqis would like us. Some just want us gone sooner than others. And they recognize things could get even bloodier when U.S. troops take off.





But Iraqis don't give Americans the benefit of the doubt. They see only the most calculating motives for our arrival, and they don't believe we want to leave. They believe we want to stay -- speaking very broadly here -- and often interpret events as machinations of the part of Americans to make excuses about why we have to be here.





American action that results in civilian casualties -- and their definition of civilian might differ from yours --is not seen as accidental. The conventional wisdom is that the U.S. would rather stir up sectarian violence than stop it.





They like you. They like me. Some might even say they like the United States (quite a few will say they'd like to live there, almost no one can get in). They sympathize with U.S. troops. But the common view is that the U.S. military is, at best, a clumsy outfit. Don't get them started on Bush.