60% in US back 2008 pullout from Iraq - 60% oppose cutting off funds to the 140,000 soldiers there

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WASHINGTON: A majority of Americans favor pulling US troops out of Iraq by fall 2008, but oppose cutting off funds to the 140,000 soldiers there, according to a poll published on Tuesday.

The Gallup-USA Today poll came as Democrats were pushing a bill which ties funding for the war to a timetable to withdraw US combat troops from Iraq by August 31, 2008. Of the 1,007 people polled over the weekend, 60 percent support withdrawal from Iraq in 2008, but 61 percent opposed cutting funding for the troops in the country, which is in the grip of a violent insurgency that has killed hundreds of people a week.

Fifty-three percent of those polled believed the insurgency would grow if the number of US soldiers in the volatile capital was lowered. Troops have been there since the US led an invasion in 2003 to oust the late dictator Saddam Hussein.

The poll showed 34 percent approving of Bush’s strategy in Iraq. Fifty-six percent thought the US “made a mistake” in sending troops to Iraq in the first place.

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/196268459?-1377

[LisaM]

1. Poll them on whether they support cutting funds to contractors

And those numbers will shift dramatically.

[BayCityProgressive]

2. who supports cutting funds to soldiers?

I support funding a withdrawal. What a shitty poll.

[Nickster]

3. The "liberal" media has beaten it into everyone's head that if Congress votes for a withdrawal

date that all of a sudden the troops will be left standing with no weapons or armor and they'll have to hitch-hike their way back home.

[bigtree]

4. It's a reflection of the political volatility of that perception

You're correct that our efforts aren't about 'cutting off funds', but it would be a mistake to take it for granted that Americans automatically understand that.

The poll is valid. The debate and the outcome, of course, will generate their own impressions among Americans looking on.

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5. .