Remember this week’s Pew Research Center poll on the Iraq war? It found that 48 percent of Americans now believe things are going well in Iraq, compared to only 30 percent in February. (Another 48 percent said things are not going well, down from 67 percent in February.)
Pew also reported that 54 percent of Americans want U.S. troops brought home “as soon as possible.”
I wondered what the people in the survey meant by “as soon as possible.” It turns out that information is in the details of the Pew Center survey, which asked a couple more questions of the 54 percent who favored bringing troops home. Check out the details, and you find out that only 16 percent said we should “remove all troops immediately.”
Fully 36 percent said “the withdrawal should be gradual over the next year or two.” The way the key question was framed, it wasn’t clear whether that gradual withdrawal should remove all troops, most troops, some troops or a few troops.
But it is significant that, considering the Iraq war’s test of America’s patience, 41 percent of Americans want to keep U.S. troops in Iraq as long as it takes to stabilize the situation, and another 36 percent are willing to give the fight for freedom at least another year or two. That’s 77 percent who haven’t given up.
Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi are doing a helluva job representing the 16 percent.
Frank Warner
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