How many more are you planning to “support” into Iraq? Twenty thousand? Thirty thousand? Seriously?
Barely one in three service members approve of the way the president is handling the war, according to the new poll for the four papers (Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Times). In another startling finding, only 41% now feel it was the right idea to go to war in Iraq in the first place.
And the number who feel success there is likely has shrunk from 83% in 2004 to about 50% today. A surprising 13% say there should be no U.S. troops in Iraq at all.
This comes even though only about one in ten called their overall political views “liberal.”
Poll for Military Papers Finds Troops’ Support for War Plunging (Editor & Publisher)
“First it was weapons of mass destruction. Then when there were none, it was that we had to find Saddam. We did that, but then it was that we had to put him on trial,” said Spc. Thomas Sheck, 25, who is on his second tour in Iraq. “So now, what will be the next story they tell us to keep us over here?”
Saddam Hussein Executed for War Crimes (AP)
President George W. Bush worked almost three hours at his Texas ranch to design a new US policy in Iraq, then emerged to say that he and his advisers needed more time.
Prickly Bush insists on more time (Melbourne Herald Sun, emphasis mine)
(AP photo from 28 December.)