Survey Finds Most Support Staying in Iraq (Washington Post says)

[Monkie]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/washpost/20050628/pl_washpost/survey_finds_most_support_staying_in_iraq

"By Richard Morin and Dan Balz,
Washington Post Staff Writers Tue Jun 28, 1:00 AM ET

As President Bush prepares to address the nation about Iraq tonight, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that most Americans do not believe the administration's claims that impressive gains are being made against the insurgency, but a clear majority is willing to keep U.S. forces there for an extended time to stabilize the country
~snip~
Views of the current status of the insurgency were deeply colored by partisanship. More than a third of all Republicans, 35 percent, agreed with the administration that the insurgents were growing weaker in Iraq, compared with 13 percent of all Democrats and 19 percent of all political independents."

amazing piece by the post trying to positively spin the poll numbers.
if only 1/3 of republicans agree that the insurgency is growing weaker that means 2/3 disagree..argggg

[lancdem]

1. I think this poll is an aberration

because its numbers are better than other recent polls; they're still not good, mind you, but they aren't as bad as the others. The CNN poll out today has Bush at 45 percent, tied for his all-time low, and an all-time high disapproval of 53 percent.

[Kagemusha]

4. I can't find anyone who believes this poll.

And that said it's not good. But they're putting out these stories saying that the public's in for the long haul despite angst about what's going on right now. I'm not confident that assumption is justified by the poll that sticks out like a sore thumb.

[maxrandb]

14. I Found One

Made the mistake of listening to Rush Limpballs while I went to lunch. He was all over this Washington Post poll.

On a bright note, he spent most of the 15 minutes I could stand listening to him "lowering the expectations" for this little propaganda "catapultation" tonight.

[Monkie]

5. looks almost like a "tailor made" aberration just on time for his speech

so the commentators on tv can point to these nr's in their analysis tonight,but im a cynic..

[merwin]

2. Most also don't support staying in Iraq for 12 years...

I don't need a survey to tell me that one.

[UCLA Dem]

3. Whatever.

[Postman]

6. so 66% of Reps and 80-90% of Dems think its getting worse....

Its soft-pedaling the numbers by stating the reverse.

[Larkspur]

7. Most also are not willing to sacrifice themselves or their kids to our

military.

We may end up getting out of Iraq due to staffing problems.

[saigon68]

12. IT WILL NEVER GET DRAFTY

THAT WOULD BE THE DEATH KNELL OF THIS WAR

THE AVERAGE REPUKE "SUPPORTER" OF THE WAR, WILL NEVER LET THEIR KID GET KILLED

THEY WOULD INSTEAD SEND PEOPLE OF COLOUR AND THE POOR, OR RECENTY IMMIGRANTS OR MERCENARIES TO FIGHT AND DIE.

[SquireJons]

16. I disagree.

All it will take is one 'crisis', real or made up. Our military is over committed in Iraq and getting chewed up. Most people look at the 1700 killed number and shrug their shoulders. But there are over 40,000 permanently disabled veterans so far and rising fast. That's four divisions of highly trained people who are gone from the military forever. What, exactly would we do if China decided to take back Taiwan? Or what if North Korea decided to attack South Korea? Fire a few cruise missiles? Drop a few big ones?

Nothing. That's what we'd do. And so the draft.

It's coming. Bet on it.

[Larkspur]

17. 9-11-2001 did not spur an increase in military enlistments, so another

homeland catastrophe wouldn't either. More likely, a homeland catastrophe would spur impeachment proceedings agains the entire Neo-con cabal.

[SquireJons]

20. ???

Actually, it did spur an increase in enlistments and world wide sympathy for the U.S. All of this subsequently wasted by bushco. Now, very few, or at least not enough, people want to volunteer for the military. So if there is another 'crisis' we will have no option but to go to a draft. Unless the public believes the 'crisis' to be fake. But with pug control of congress and the media, how will they come to that conclusion? Nationalism runs deep in this country, and most people will click their heals and salute the flag.

[Larkspur]

21. No, enlistments did not increase

Bush told the nation that "shopping" was our patriotic duty.

[SquireJons]

31. Got a link to back that up?

I think I remember reading of a surge in enlistments, especially in the National Guard right after 9/11.

[Larkspur]

43. No, do you have one to back yours up? Enlistments did not decrease

but they didn't increase either. They stayed about the same until the Iraq war turned into a meat grinder and then they started nose diving.

[SquireJons]

44. Maybe, I'll look

It was over three years ago that I saw the article, so it's archived at best. Might be quicker to just look the figures up - if the govt can be trusted enough to release accurate figures. Which I doubt.

[Straight Shooter]

8. *yawn*

I agree with above. "Whatever."

[Benhurst]

9. From that rag The Washington Post. Ho-hum. NT

[KurtNYC]

10. Spin spin spin spin spin spin

More than a third of all Republicans, 35 percent, agreed with the administration that the insurgents were growing weaker in Iraq, compared with 13 percent of all Democrats

So...the other 65% of Repubs basically think the Resident is lying? And that equals "partisanship" ?! How do they write this shit?

Too bad the pollsters didn't ask the Americans who ARE IN IRAQ about staying!

[shantipriya]

11. Most support staying in Iraq

Let these SOB's and their children suit up and replace the current force in Iraq and thereby prove their support, patriotism and jingoism.

[bemildred]

13. How to lie with numbers.

Otherwise know as: "Lies, damn lies, and statistics".

[catnhatnh]

15. Actually the poll says that the situation in Iraq is SO bad...

....that one in every eight normal people are so appalled that they truly believe the very best thing we can do is drop our weapons and head for the helicopters on the roof....every other person polled whether they suggest one week or one century to decamp is listed as being a supporter of Bush?????So, tell me,have you stopped beating your wife yet? Sorry sir, yes or no only....

[Media_Lies_Daily]

18. A major load of NeoCon crap.

[Puzzler]

19. People are free to "believe" what they want...

... but facts are facts. The insurgency is not getting weaker. I mean... why don't they have a poll asking how many people believe 2+2=5?

-P

[Jacobin]

22. The WaPo is a lying, Warmonger Rag of a paper

suitable not even for lining Polly's cage.

What utter spin, nonsense and crap.

These pricks are lower than low.

[bpilgrim]

23. they consider the American Enterprise Institute a NON-PARTISAN group

:eyes:

peace

[Jacobin]

26. That is an amazing statement

Truly amazing.

The WaPo has moved so far to the right they consider the AEI non-partisan?


bwaaaaahahahahahaha

Delusional.

[bpilgrim]

27. here is a recent example... ----- -------- ----------- > LINK

Some nonpartisan analysts see deeper shortcomings in the way Frist approaches difficult issues, such as judicial nominees and Bolton. He sometimes compounds his problems, they say, with ill-timed comments and actions that a cannier Senate leader might have avoided. "We still see a bumpy learning curve," said Norman J. Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

source...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/26/AR2005062601032.html

peace

[Jacobin]

29. Oh my.

My oh my.

It was once a great paper, now reduced to sticking its collective nose up the neo-cons' big hairy ass.

[DemoTex]

24. Desperate measures for desperate times.

Tailor-made for the Bu$hboy's propaganda-fest tonight.

[Jacobin]

25. LMAO

Love your bs meter...

:woohoo:

[oblivious]

38. US prosecuted Nazi propagandists as war criminals

The Nuremberg tribunal and the role of the media
By David Walsh
16 April 2003

In the period leading up to the invasion, the American media uncritically advanced the Bush administration’s arguments, rooted in lies, distortions and half-truths, for an attack on Iraq. It virtually excluded all critical viewpoints, to the point of blacking out news of mass antiwar demonstrations and any other facts that contradicted the propaganda from the White House and Pentagon.

The obvious aim was to misinform and manipulate public opinion, and convince the tens of millions within the US who were opposed to the administration’s war policy that they constituted a small and helpless minority.

...This makes the US media an accessory before and after the fact to crimes carried out in Iraq and future crimes against other peoples in the region and around the world. Sitting far from the ravaged Iraqi cities, in well-appointed boardrooms, the media moguls may believe they will never face such charges. There are, however, historical parallels and precedents to the contrary.

The Nuremberg precedent

...Nonetheless, in their arguments US prosecutors set forth a democratic legal principle derived from the international experience of a half-century of carnage: that planning and launching an aggressive war constituted a criminal act and that those who helped prepare such a war through their propaganda efforts were as culpable as those who drew up the battle plans or manufactured the munitions.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/apr2003/nure-a16.shtml

[silver10]

28. Unfortunately, I definitely believe this poll ...

Most of the people taking this poll probably believe Iraq may have been a mistake, but it is so bad there now that morally we can't leave. Imagine the civil war, and the possible dictator who will then take over - make Saddam look like Santa Claus.

Of course, the war has also not touched most people, so it is easier to buy into the pipe dream and have others pay the bill.

I personally want our soldiers back - it is a war we will NEVER win - look at Vietnam. Plus I would never want to sacrifice my life for such a dismal, lost "cause". And I certainly wouldn't want to be a hypocrite and send others to lose their lives over my self-righteousness.

If this poll is true, which I think it is, then we shouldn't need to have a draft, right?

[shantipriya]

30. Stupid Poll

Let them go and fight this war and stop sending poor people's kids to do their dirty and immoral work.

[TankLV]

35. It's their problem - if they choose civil war, so be it - it's their

choice.

We should not interfere. We have already interfered too much.

[Spiffarino]

36. The "Pottery Barn Rule" Powell spoke about

We broke it; now we own it. It was morally reprehensible to go into Iraq based on fabrications from Cheney's Office of "Special" Plans. Yet it would be even worse to leave Iraq without at least trying to fix it.

Depending on the wording of the survey question, I might have agreed. That the neocon asshats have made a mess of everything isn't the issue. America's honor could be at least partially restored if we would do our best to repair the damage we've done to Iraq. It may never be possible to undo it though, given what a colossal clusterfuck they've made of it.

[hollowdweller]

32. Look how long it took for opinion to shift in Vietnam

And there was even a draft back then. I predict about 2 more years unless the violence stays the same or they start a draft.

[VegasWolf]

33. Even if this poll were remotely correct, the terrorists are getting better

against the occupiers. The shit will hit the fan if the Iraqui's
pull off a Tet Offensive type of attack.

[TankLV]

34. I smell bullshit.

[Dudley_DUright]

37. Thats because it is bullshit

The Washington Post released a poll today, and in their story accompanying it they claimed that only one in eight Americans (12.5%) supports an immediate pull out of US troops from Iraq. In fact, the St. Louis Independent Media Center discovered that if you look at the Post's own data they post on their Web site, it's actually 41% of Americans who said pull the troops out, the second highest number ever in their polling over the past two years.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/06/wash-post-botches-poll-on-iraq-says.html

[oblivious]

42. Wow! Washington Post CAUGHT LYING!!!!! Also here, through Buzzflash:

http://www.stlimc.org/newswire/display/270/index.php

41% is just over two out of five, not "one in eight" (12.5%) as the second paragraph suggests. And 8% over half is not a "solid majority" for "staying the course." It would be more accurately described as a "slim majority!

[okieinpain]

39. they basically said the same thing on NPR. funny most say stay,

but I'm not going.

[cestpaspossible]

40. Dan Balz is a GOP hack

[roguevalley]

41. they didn't ask me.