Wrong. Still.

We've been over this, with examples from history, and citations from Iraqis in areas controlled by insurgents or terrorists. A hostile minority willing to kill at a moment's notice, and in the absence of reliable police or military protection, does not require active support from a population. The population just has to stay quiet and out of the way.

There are places in the U.S. like this. Survey any average person in a gang-riddled area of a city, and see if they support the gangs. But nobody comes out to testify, either.

Going at it from the other direction, I submit that a hostile population of 25 million would have made a much larger lethal impact on our forces than they have.

Going at it from a third direction, it has been positively established in polls that the support for al Qaeda in Iraq is nil. It goes without saying that support for the true Sunni insurgency is not high among Shiites or Kurds, which are quite a large chunk of the Iraqi population.

Your statement does not stand up. Still.