Poll: 54 Percent Say Iraq War a Mistake

[nefar559]

the number just keeps growing..





Poll: 54 Percent Say Iraq War a Mistake

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WASHINGTON - For the first time, a majority of Americans say they think the United States made a mistake sending troops to Iraq (news - web sites), according to a poll released Thursday.

The CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll found that 54 percent of people say the war was a mistake, up from 41 percent who felt that way in early June.


The poll also found that more than half say the Iraq war has made the United States less safe from terrorism. Only a third said it made this country safer.


The finding that more than half now think the Iraq war was a mistake recalls the disillusionment of Americans in 1968 with the Vietnam War. The first time a majority said that was a mistake was in August 1968.


In the Persian Gulf War (news - web sites) more than a decade ago, the highest that level of concern got was three in 10.


The negative findings on the Iraq war come as the United States prepares to turn over sovereignty of the country to Iraqis. But there are few signs that American troops will be leaving anytime soon, with violence from insurgents on the rise.


As of Thursday, 842 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq last year, according to the Defense Department. Insurgents in Iraq set off car bombs and seized police stations Thursday in an offensive that killed more than 100 people.


The poll of 1,005 adults was taken June 21-23 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

 

[MR. TYPCEE]

SHIT...I AGREE...$IDEWAYZ

 

[JoMoDo]

Where was everyone BEFORE we went in there? This iShhh was destined to be a disaster, F**k BUSH and the entire admin.

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

Bush is a great man! He's a philosophical and cultural icon! Bush is a genius! Fuck everyone on here who doesn't support the troops and president. Bush Cheney 04!

 

[attay]

I came across an article that raises some central points

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030428&s=klein

It's naive to believe that USA is in Iraq for altruistic reasons and that military presence is justified merely by the stabilization of the country.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

"103 KILLED IN IRAQ BLAST" -- Do you think most people stop to read that that was 100 civilians and only 3 soldiers? How many people do you think chalked that one up as "Oh shit, here we go again, 100 more soldiers killed"?

Isn't it worse that it's 100 civilians?

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

No, it's much better...lmao.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

No, it's much better...lmao.

You're right, what the hell was I thinking? I completely forgot the mathematical equation that demonstrates American lives are more important than any other life. I feel like a complete idiot. Sorry comrade.

R W
A = ( ---- )*( ---- )
B+1 b+4

 

[nefar559]

You're right, what the hell was I thinking? I completely forgot the mathematical equation that demonstrates American lives are more important than any other life. I feel like a complete idiot. Sorry comrade.

R W
A = ( ---- )*( ---- )
B+1 b+4

its all clear now

 

[I. Cold]

I was for it at first

but now that all this shits happened, nah... unecessary. it was unjust.

 

[m.w.merlino]

Why do you think there is a militant backlash before the control switches over? Because it was a rushed goal put in place by our government to falsely advocate great progress, Iraqi police and special forces are without adequate teflon vests and the iraqi army is only 3000 strong as of now, falling very short of the 35,000 expected and the 100,000 needed by the end of the year. Good thing the situation in Iraq is settling down though right? Only a few car bombings and militant uprisings here and there right? What scares me is I'm certain that Thursdays uprising is going to just be the start of a bloody and drawn out power struggle all over the fact that we invaded on selfish terms, with the added bonus of throwing an evil dictator out of power. NO proof of WMD's, NO proof of al-quaeda connections, close to 1000 U.S soldiers dead, over a thousand wounded. U.S contractors being beheaded on the internet. Republicans and Bush supporters of the siccness, what GOOD has come from this war that will outweigh these consequences and what GOOD can come of this terribly sloppy power handoff destined to end in failure and only implicated to guarentee another Bush election...

 

[m.w.merlino]

The New York times also printed claims of WMD when they had "evidence" about them. . .hmmm
I never said that half the country was insurgents but when the attack 5 cities simultaneously and kill over 100 people i wouldnt call that a small problem. . .I havent butchered anything, stick to replying with intelligent comments.

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

Meh...small errors in verbiage...I'm sure you, and everyone else here, knows/knew exactky what he meant.

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

Then again you left out all the high ranking army officers we gave the boot to after we toppled Saddam.

Humorous anecdote: The new Iraqi prime minister's first action will be to re-hire thousands of Iraqi soldiers we kicked out of the army simply for serving under Saddam Hussein. Apparently in Bush's mind if we are good and they are the evildoers, we had to completely replace the army, based on the fundamental bad-guy evildoerness embedded in the Iraqi troops.

Notwithstanding, though, I suspect foreigners to be largely responsible for the attacks. Yet unrest is unrest. A pipe bomb kills the same amount no matter who lights the fuse. Iraq is now, and will possibly forever be, a hotbed for terror.

By the way tadou what do you think of the International Institute of Strategic Studies report put out a few weeks ago that attributes exponential gains in recent terrorist recruitment to the Iraq war? I would say it's just common sense...but that's just me.

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

Never heard of them? Really? They are considered by most to be the absolute foremost authority on the geopolitical military situation. They are not democrats or republicans...lmao. They are a multinational networking thinktank that shares intel and analyzes the world military situation. They usually release reports detailing things like propagation of nuclear weapons, terrorism, likelihood of coups/changing governments, likelihood of conflicts, etc. They are beyond Bush/Kerry or any such drivel.

 

[PyKillaman]

Man fuc Bush he a bitch nigga man and he better not win this year swear 2 god

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

The report generated a good deal of talk when it was released...I guess you just missed it that happens to me sometimes as well. Some news comes out while I'm occupied with shit.

Here's a bit from CBS

http://cbs2.com/topstories/topstories_story_146165752.html

Report: Al Qaeda 18,000 Strong

Ranks Are Growing

May 25, 2004 1:54 pm US/Pacific
LONDON (CBS/AP) Despite losses around the world, al Qaeda has more than 18,000 potential terrorists, and its ranks are growing because of the conflict in Iraq, a leading think tank warned Tuesday.

Al Qaeda still has a functioning leadership despite the death or capture of key figures, and estimates suggest al Qaeda operates in more than 60 nations around the world, the International Institute of Strategic Studies said in its Strategic Survey 2003-4.

The terrorist group poses a growing threat to Western interests and attacks are likely to increase, the institute said.

"Overall, risks of terrorism to Westerners and Western assets in Arab countries appeared to increase after the Iraq war began in March 2003," institute director John Chipman told a news conference to launch the annual survey.

"Al Qaeda must be expected to keep trying to develop more promising plans for terrorist operations in North America and Europe, potentially involving weapons of mass destruction," Chipman said.

At the same time, it will continue carrying out attacks on "soft targets encompassing Americans, Europeans and Israelis and aiding the insurgency in Iraq," he added.

The estimate of 18,000 fighters was based on intelligence estimates that al Qaeda trained at least 20,000 fighters in its training camps in Afghanistan before the United States and its allies ousted the Taliban regime. In the ensuing war on terror, some 2,000 al Qaeda fighters have been killed or captured, the survey said.

The United States remains al Qaeda's prime target, the report said. An al Qaeda leader has said 4 million Americans will have to be killed "as a prerequisite to any Islamic victory," the survey said.

Iraq has become the new magnet of al Qaeda's war against the United States and up to 1,000 foreign Islamic fighters have infiltrated Iraqi territory, where they are cooperating with Iraqi forces, the survey said.

Al Qaeda appears to have successfully reconstituted its operations in dispersed groups and through local allies since being driven out of Afghanistan, the survey said.

"The Madrid bombings in March 2004 suggested that al Qaeda had fully reconstituted, set its sights firmly on the U.S. and its closest Western allies in Europe, and established a new and effective modus operandi," the survey said.

The U.S.-led war in Iraq has increased the risk to Western interests in Arab countries, the survey said.

The West and its allies must continue to mount a major offensive against al Qaeda and progress will be incremental, the report said. Any security offensive against al Qaeda must be accompanied with political developments, such as the democratization of Iraq and the resolution of conflict in Israel, it said.

Progress against al Qaeda "is likely to accelerate only with currently elusive political developments that would broadly depress recruitment and motivation," the report said.

In Iraq, IISS said progress "has been undermined by a lack of troops, poor institutional links between the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and Iraqi society and the inability of the
Iraqi Governing Council to act as a rallying point for political support or loyalty from ordinary Iraqis."

Private militias, like radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's al-Mahdi army now battling U.S. troops in Najaf and Kufa, are the biggest problem in Iraq, IISS said. If violence persists, more ordinary Iraqis will look to militias to restore order, rather than U.S. troops.

However, since militias lack broad popular support, a sectarian civil war is "very unlikely in the short to medium term," IISS concludes, although elections looming at the end of 2004 or early 2005 will be "a crucial test."

The IISS annual survey identifies widespread effects of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Besides its impact on the war on terror, the Iraq conflict forced the Bush administration to take a back seat in efforts to stop suspected nuclear weapons programs in Iran and North Korea, and to forge Middle East peace.

Also hindering U.S. efforts to stop nuclear proliferation, Chipman said, was the fact that "the Bush Administration remained deeply divided over policies towards Iran and North Korea." The administration is often depicted as being split between people negotiation, mainly in the State Department, and those preferring hard-line policies.

 

[AdolfOliverBush]

100 civilians is tragic, but they are the ones killing their own people. Now we are at the point where we just want to get the fuck out of there. This whole situation should have been handled a lot better. There's no weapons, okay, but we should have made some good come out of this. We nabbed the dictator, but if we turn him over to the Iraqi people his people will rise up again and probably free him and return him to power. We should have had a larger military presence in Iraq to maintain stability. 130,000 troops was not enough. We should have had at least 500,000. Now we are going to hand over power in a country that is ripe with suicide bombers and militants. Look at the shithole that has been created. It is going to be very difficult to persuade the American population that a mission similar to this can be carried out again. Iraq was fucked up. Now we are just going to leave and let them all go to hell.

 

[nefar559]

100 civilians is tragic, but they are the ones killing their own people. Now we are at the point where we just want to get the fuck out of there. This whole situation should have been handled a lot better. There's no weapons, okay, but we should have made some good come out of this. We nabbed the dictator, but if we turn him over to the Iraqi people his people will rise up again and probably free him and return him to power. We should have had a larger military presence in Iraq to maintain stability. 130,000 troops was not enough. We should have had at least 500,000. Now we are going to hand over power in a country that is ripe with suicide bombers and militants. Look at the shithole that has been created. It is going to be very difficult to persuade the American population that a mission similar to this can be carried out again. Iraq was fucked up. Now we are just going to leave and let them all go to hell.

LOL, the funnest comment i've read in a while

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

LMAO @ Adolf.

Tadou, they do have an agenda...their agenda is putting out useful strategic and geopolitical data for use by corporations, countries, etc. It's such a pattern with you that anytime anyone puts forth data that doesn't support your opinions you immediately attempt to discredit them. For someone who frequently calls people "labelers" and "name callers" you do a pretty hefty amount yourself.

IISS has been highly regarded since their inception and their data has been used frequently by Corporations, Govt. Administrations, and Urban planners. Yet, once they enter the tadou zone, they must have an agenda, since they don't support the Repuke notion of the grand ol Iraq War.

The Iraq war increases/has increased terrorism - is this not logical? If you were to invade a country in a region that is the prime source of terrorism, wouldn't terrorism increase? Ignorance is bliss; it must be a happy place in tadou land.