I have a project for a radical newspaper that I am hoping that you can help me with. Here is what I am looking for:
If we can find any opinion polls on how people feel about the war in Iraq.
1. National "percentage that supports the war" data amongst Rs and Ds and Independents.
2. Something that shows the varied tpes of responses to the war (for example 39 people think that we should pull out of I raq, "give the oil to the Iraqis" the rest wanted to keep it.
3. Number of people who have died in the post "mission accomplished" Iraq due to insurgent forces. (stats for both Iraqi death estimates and U.S. and other allied forces soldiers)
4. how many people have died in other countries (like bombing in england, spain, do not include 9-11)
5. what the projected costs of the "occupation" and accompanying war going to be over the next 12 years (or what ever projected time frame you can find. Or if you guys want to do the math, for which I would be very greatful.
6. How much money has gone to direct military defense and offense operations in Iraq vs. the amount that is being spent on reconstruction.
7. some kind of stats that get at what they should have rebuilt by now vs. what they have actually built,
8. The projected amount of troups over the next 12 years of occupation (again time frame is flex.)
I was unable to track down answers to all of the questions you posed in your request in time for your deadline, but here is a partial set of responses. I have asked the other volunteer rad ref librarians for assistance, and perhaps they can add comments to this entry if they have more information to assist you.
2. To get current opinion poll data for your article and accompanying graphic(s), you might find the following sites helpful:
a) PollingReport.com (which describes itself as an "independent nonpartisan resource") provides recent polling data on the war in Iraq; this should give you some data for varied responses to the war:
http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm
(You might also browse the site for information on responses to the bombings in London in relation to the Iraq war.)
b) You might also cite poll data published on June 21, citing that only 39% of those polled were in support of the war (reported on CNN.com):
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/06/20/poll/
3. Here are some places to look for the data you need to calculate deaths after Bush's "Mission Accomplished" announcement on May 1, 2003):
a) U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq (post-"Mission Accomplished"):
This site includes sources linked to the datapoints on the first graph.
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/%7Estephan/USfatalities.html
b) Iraq Coalition Casualty Count (updated monthly):
Page includes data for U.S. and Coalition nations' military fatalities and U.S. military who have been wounded
http://icasualties.org/oif/
c) Iraq Body Count:
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
5 & 8. The Congressional Budget Office projects that spending ("discretionary outlays") in Iraq and Afghanistan could total $448 billion between 2005-2015. The table included with this report suggests the estimated number of troops that will be deployed over this period as well. The CBO estimates that 50,000 troops will be deployed in Iraq in 2015, with a "reserve backfill" of 24,000 (see the table for more specific definitions and the data for number of troops deployed per year).
http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=6067&sequence=0
6. "Truth in Spending," a report published in October 2003 by Foreign Policy in Focus, provides the following information about the ratio of spending on military occupation/operations to rebuilding in Iraq:
"The ratio of requested military to reconstruction spending in the supplemental is 2.5 to 1. Here much of the reconstruction is being run by the military."
The FPIF report also states that in the case of Afghanistan, "[The] ratio of U.S. spending on military operations to reconstruction represented by this request is 13.7 to 1."
The report refers to the President's Fiscal Year 2004 Supplemental Budget request for $87 billion in funds for Afghanistan and Iraq, a request which was approved and became Public Law 108-106.
"Truth in Spending," by Col. Dan Smith (Ret.)
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ106.108