Public Opinion on the Iraq War

From CNN:

Opposition among Americans to the war in Iraq has reached a new high, with only about a third of respondents saying they favor it, according to a poll released Monday.

Just 35 percent of 1,033 adults polled say they favor the war in Iraq; 61 percent say they oppose it -- the highest opposition noted in any CNN poll since the conflict began more than three years ago.

Fact is, it's too late now.

It's unfortunate that Americans did not think through the matter more completely before being taken into war by the Bush Administration. The question marks were huge, the facts were thin, but the polls then showed that the majority supported the unnecessary war of choice.

It's time to face the fact that most of the public support for Iraq was misplaced vengence- to get "them" back for 9/11 (even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11)- and misplaced fear (the fictitious"mushroom cloud" Condi Rice kept talking about).

President Bush disregards the poll:

Despite the rising opposition to the war, President Bush said the U.S. will not withdraw from Iraq while he is president. "In this case, it would give the terrorists and extremists an additional tool besides safe haven, and that is revenues from oil sales," the president said. "Leaving before the job is done would be a disaster," he said.

In one sense, he's probably right. But, none of what he says would be true if the US had not invaded. There would be no terrorist haven in Iraq had the US not created it.

One key error in his statement. It's not "Leaving before the job is done" that is a disaster. It is the job itself that has been a disaster.

GP