Mixed Reviews On Iraq War
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Polls, The War On TerrorismIt seems like most don’t think we’ll win, but they want us to.
From USA Today, first the bad news:
For the first time, a majority of Americans, 51%, say the Bush administration deliberately misled the public about whether Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction â€â€? the reason Bush emphasized in making the case for invading. The administration’s credibility on the issue has been steadily eroding since 2003.
Then this the good news:
Still, on the question that tests fundamental attitudes toward the war â€â€? was it a mistake to send U.S. troops? â€â€? the public’s view has rebounded. By 53%-46%, those surveyed say it wasn’t a mistake, the strongest support for the war since just after the Iraqi elections in January.
Does this tell us that although a slim majority believe they were misled, they don’t mind?
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July 27th, 2005 at 9:09 am
Not really. Common sense suggests that the two majority positions (that the Bush administration misled the public into supporting the war in Iraq, and that the war is worthwhile) would be mutually exclusive. By that reasoning, only 4% - the overlap between the 51% who believe we were misled and the 53% who still favor the war - could be said to support both positions.
Now, this number could go higher if you take into account those who would support, or oppose, the war in any event, regardless of the circumstances of how it began. Committed pacifists, for example, could be expected to oppose the war whether or not it was begun on a false pretense. The more people there are like this, who oppose the war even if they don’t believe Bush lied, the greater of an overlap there will be between the “Bush misled us” majority and the “war is worth it” majority.
It could also go higher when you factor in the “water under the bridge” mentality; i.e. that the war the U.S. started (when we were fighting a mostly conventional war against Saddam Hussein’s regime) has so little in common with the war as it stands now (when we’re fighting a mostly guerilla-style war against mostly non-Iraqi jihadis amid the ruins of the aforementioned regime) that the original U.S. motive for going to war is all but irrelevant - water under the bridge.
(Full disclosure: I happen to share the WUtB viewpoint. After all, even if we had actually found a big cache of WMDs in Iraq after Saddam’s fall, that wouldn’t have changed the current situation one bit. We’d still have had the Baathist insurgency. We’d still have had the foreign jihadis join (and slowly displace) that insurgency. We’d still have had kidnappings and beheadings. We’d still have had the ethnic and sectarian conflicts. We’d still have had Abu Ghraib. I think you get the picture by now. Even if the war in Iraq was not about al Qaeda at the outset, it most definitely is now.)
July 27th, 2005 at 10:06 am
Unfortunately, we’d also still have a future Islamic republic installed by US power. If that isn’t a mistake, I don’t know what is.
I supported the invasion of Iraq based on the premises presented by the Bush Administration. But I’m one of the 51% now who believe we were deliberately misled. I don’t know what we should do at this point.
I think lots of folks have that Oliver Hardy feeling: “Another fine mess you’ve gotten us into, Stanley”.
July 28th, 2005 at 12:12 pm
I wouldn’t assume that there is necessarily any causality between the numbers. Remember, the ‘average’ individual doesn’t necesssarily think in logical terms. I know a small number of people who now think we were intentionally mislead, but will continue to be positive on any question of War, simply because that’s how they interpert patriotism.
And, it does appear as a rather small number that flipped there… so I don’t know that one could draw any conclusions about the majority of Americans.
July 28th, 2005 at 4:37 pm
If people believe they were misled, why do they/we push for the resignation of the President?
July 28th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
Because it would be pointless with a Republican controlled House and Senate. It’s a non-starter and would only work to further divide us, since the push would have to be led by members of Congress.
And these numbers only speak to the fact that even though people think they were misled (lied to), they don’t really care. To me, that’s extremely sad, no matter how you look at it.