The exact numbers protesting are irrelavent and the story is old- Iraqis are pissed and hate America. The will continue to blame and blame and take little responsibility for the root of the problem- extreme Islam. Perhaps Iraqis would be less miserable if they stopped blowing each other up over the Koran. Again, the exact number protesting is not important. We all know the middle east hates America.

Bethany, the root cause of the problems in Iraq have nothing to do with 'extreme Islam'. The problems in Iraq are all directly attributable to the irresponsible invasion of the 'coalition'. And of course the complete destruction of their society and way of life brought about by that invasion.

DaveD- It sounds like you are defending the extremist Islamic elements. Obviously the US has mishandled the entire conflict from the beginning in every area of planning. I've heard the same arguments ad-nauseum about how the US has screwed up in Iraq- it nothing new. Most attacks in Iraq are Sunni vs. Shiite, or Iraqi on Iraqi. Sure you can plame the US for causing the country to have poor security but there is no rewind button we can press to magically take Iraq back to it's pre-war state. If Iraqis are sick of the killing, then they bare a large responsibility since they continue to kill each other indiscriminately. So, I think extreme Islam has much to do with it.