re: Pentagon says Iraq violence spreading
...the percentage of Iraqis responding positively has dropped fairly consistently over the past year — whether they were asked to look ahead six months, one year or five years — according to polling data cited in the report.
Check out Slide 6 in this Powerpoint report. Then go on to slides 8 - 10. While it may be technically correct that the number of people who think things are getting worse is going up, they are still a small minority.
A lot depends on who you ask. Like whites once were in South Africa, the Sunnis were doing better under Saddam than they are now, and for much the same reasons.