Zogby Poll: American Troops in Iraq Want Out by End of Year
Gee, do you think that maybe Congressman John Murtha (D-PA) was right when he urged the White House to begin an immediate withdrawal from Iraq?
A Zogby International/Le Moyne College Poll released yesterday reveals that a whopping 72 percent of American troops serving in Iraq believe the U.S. should leave the country by the end of 2006.
The survey, conducted in Iraq January 18 through February 14, 2006 and done using face-to-face, random interviews, shows that a clear majority of military people doubt President Bush’s assertions that the U.S. should stay in Iraq “as long as they are needed.”
While most troops say they are pleased with their level of equipment and body armor, and 58 percent say the Iraq goals are clear, 42 percent believe the U.S. mission has lost focus and most think the insurgents they are now fighting are primarily Iraqis and not outsiders as Team Bush has often claimed.
And now for some really weird stuff from the poll:
A Zogby International/Le Moyne College Poll released yesterday reveals that a whopping 72 percent of American troops serving in Iraq believe the U.S. should leave the country by the end of 2006.
The survey, conducted in Iraq January 18 through February 14, 2006 and done using face-to-face, random interviews, shows that a clear majority of military people doubt President Bush’s assertions that the U.S. should stay in Iraq “as long as they are needed.”
While most troops say they are pleased with their level of equipment and body armor, and 58 percent say the Iraq goals are clear, 42 percent believe the U.S. mission has lost focus and most think the insurgents they are now fighting are primarily Iraqis and not outsiders as Team Bush has often claimed.
And now for some really weird stuff from the poll:
- An astounding 85 percent of troops interviewed believe they are fighting as retaliation "for Saddam Hussein’s role in the 9/11 attacks." Putting aside the fact that the 9/11 Commission Report -- which clearly repudiates any claim of Hussein’s involvement in the attacks of September 11 -- was published almost two years ago, Commander-in-Chief Bush himself called this notion false. “We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11 attacks,” said Bush in 2003. How's that for a disconnect from reality?
- Of the 72 percent of troops who say the U.S. should exit Iraq before the end of the year, 29 percent said the withdrawal should happen immediately. These must be the people that Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are referring to when they talk about those who favor a “cut and run” strategy. But, in a bizarre twist, 37 percent of the troops say that American citizens in favor of a rapid U.S. withdrawal from Iraq are unpatriotic. Now that’s strange.
posted by Bob Geiger at 3/01/2006 09:22:00 AM
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