Watching the CBS Evening News last night, I was quite surprised to hear a comment by Katie Couric, a piece of news of which I was totally unaware. According to Couric (in a story about the President's plans to increase military strength in Iraq), the majority of America believes we cannot win in Iraq. That was the statement. She made it in passing (so much so that my wife missed it entirely). It was something like "While polls show that most Americans believe we cannot win the war in Iraq, the President believes we can."
Completely aside from whether or not one is for or against the war, for or against keeping troops there, or for or against the President, I am wondering if this is true. Is it true that most Americans believe that it is impossible for us to finish the task of placing a democratic government in Iraq?
I ask because it would certainly answer the question I asked here. If most Americans believe that we are incapable of accomplishing the task, then my "What then?" answer would be, "Nothing! Write off Iraq! We need to run and hide."
1 comment:
I think their "most Americans" is just not accurate. Let's not forget that somewhere around 35% of Americans will disapprove of anything this President does. If John Kerry had been elected and we were in this same place, chances are that those same 35% would be justifying our presence (and, sadly, conservatives would take their place in calling the war mismanaged).
This is all about a deep hatred by 1/3 of Americans of George W Bush (Bush Derangement Syndrome). Unfortunately, it appears to have become contagious with the help of the media - who have managed with their daily "bad news" coverage to convince enough people over that existing 35% that things are so bad, that now they can claim a "majority".
Just as a related aside, had we taken a poll of Americans prior to Pearl Harbor, a "majority" would have said to stay out of "Europe's" fight (in fact, a vast majority)!
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