People need to look at Iran to understand why many countries ban polls or ban announcing the results of polls.

The Iranian government banned the poll results and considered those who carried out the polls to be traitors. The reason is, of course, that the poll results were embarrassing to the Iranian government.

According to the poll results, 70 percent of the people thought that United States and England helped in bringing about the Iranian revolution, Not only is this strange; but it is also wrong.

However, these poll results show people’s opinions which may be wrong because they do not know the actual historical facts. The polls reflect people’s opinions and political understanding, whether right or wrong.

The Iranian revolution was an enormous challenge for the United States and its foreign policy. The very idea that it was American-made reveals considerable confusion between two realities: the people hate the United States government and they also hate what their own government in Tehran is doing.

Of the families who lost sons in the Iran-Iraq War, 85 percent regret sending their sons into battle; this figure includes those who, at the time, thought it was a holy war which deserved sacrifice. The families later discovered that the war was pointless and yet, the country lost over a million soldiers.

In the last years of the war, the government could have ended it if it had agreed to the Iraqi initiative. At the time, however, the Iranian government refused, mistakenly thinking that it could destroy the Iraqi regime. In the end, of course, they had to end the war and the Iraqi regime remained intact.

Anger and regret is a common feeling in any war, not just in Iran; Many people who opposed the American government during the Vietnam War were the family members of those killed or injured in that war. That war changed the legal and community structure in American society and people who opposed politicians and warmongers began to appear everywhere.

One of the very interesting results of the Iranian poll is that 70 percent of the people questioned oppose the idea of building a nuclear reactor. They believe there is no need to build one. Their reasons are that they do not want trouble with their neighbors in Iraq and also because of their own domestic economic situation.

Arab News Opinion 29 December 2002