by Mark Silva
The public has grown somewhat more optimistic about the impact of the U.S. "surge'' in military force in Iraq over the past month, the Gallup Poll has found. Still, only one in three of those surveyed say that increased troop levels are making the situation better.
. Opposition to the war has decreased slightly from a high set last month, Gallup reports, and is more in line with opposition registered throughout most of the year.
"Americans continue to be inclined to wait for September and Gen. David Petraeus' report to Congress about the status of the war before developing a new Iraq policy,'' reports Gallup's Jeffrey Jones.
Yet the poll also shows that most people continue to favor removing most U.S. troops from Iraq by next spring.
In the survey taken Friday through Sunday, 31 percent said the surge of U.S. troops in Iraq is making the situation there better. That's an increase from 22 percent last month.
A plurality of 41 percent says the surge is not making much difference, down from 51 percent last month. There has been no change in the percentage of Americans who say the surge is making the situation in Iraq worse -- 24 percent now, 25 percent in July.
Fifty-seven percent of Americans surveyed said the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, down from the high point of 62 percent recorded by Gallup last month.
"It has now been more than two years (July 2005) since war support exceeded opposition on this measure by a significant margin in any Gallup poll,'' Jones reports.
For more on the survey, see the Gallup Poll report.
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Comments
Frist! Ever optimistic Americans want to believe in the troops. Sure, I'll wait 5 weeks for the silk purse coming form the mis-admininstration, but when we're in Iraq in 2010, even the dead enders here will have to admit there might be a problem in Iraq.
Posted by: snitramc | August 8, 2007 8:25 AM
This is Petraeus' third tour in Iraq. It is Odierno's second. We expect too much from these men. They have been part of the problem. Neither of them screamed for a change in tactics as we became mired in this disaster for more than four years.
These are go along to get along officers and symbols of our failure. How can our leading officers fail consistantly for such a long time and not be charged with imcompetence?
Four and a half years into the war and we have a "surge"?
Posted by: c. perry | August 8, 2007 9:42 AM
Why should anyone be optimistic about the events in Iraq?? The country is ravaged by death, destruction, and violence everyday. Since August 1st, 28 Americans soldiers have been killed and many more have been injured. People who live in and around Baghdad have to ration their water and receive about an hour of electricity each day. With the British forces pulling out of Basra, the situation in the south has become increasing destabilized. The puppet Iraqi government is corrupt and powerless. Caches of weaponry and tens of millions of dollars have gone missing. The American public have been lied to mislead and deceived by Bush, his administration and the DOD since March 2003. Again, why should anyone be optimistic about Iraq??
Posted by: Doug R. | August 8, 2007 9:54 AM
snitramc, I think it's pretty clear already that we'll need another six months in september. We've needed just six more months to "turn the corner" since 2003. The six month long Friedman Unit is now the standard timeframe required for any milestone or benchmark or corner-turning-event. You're way too pessimistic with that talk about 2010. We're only six months away...from the next six months.
Posted by: Tom O | August 8, 2007 10:24 AM
Where's the political solution that Dubya, President Petraeus and others say is needed for long term peace in Mesopotamia?
Posted by: Doug Zook | August 8, 2007 12:21 PM
Sadly, Doug is right. This whole thing hinges on the Iraqis pulling their political house together. The rest of the Sunni block abandoned the Parliament, not a good sign.
Posted by: dt | August 8, 2007 2:33 PM
Dickie Durbin was on CNN today and he admitted the surge is working but, the political side of the government isn't. I have said for weeks the DNC is invested in defeat in Iraq now that the Dems including Dickie think the surge may be working they have to still be for defeat for America. So now in unison they are saying that we have to be concerned about the politcal solution because believe me if we win in Iraq these characters are through and they know it. Remember when DNC talking points kept saying gravitas about Cheney when he first became VP. Now the chorus and song has switched for the Dems to "political' you'll keep hearing that even Juan Williams used it on Fox News Sunday. The surrendercrats are close to reality and they are worried. Jerry White, Springfield, IL
Posted by: Jerry White | August 8, 2007 2:42 PM
Jerry White is funny. The middle east has been a black hole for decades.
There is something very sinister to my mind in this Mesopotamian entanglement," Winston Churchill wrote his Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, in August 1920. "Week after week and month after month for a long time we shall have a continuance of this miserable, wasteful, sporadic warfare marked from time to time certainly by minor disasters and cuttings off of troops and agents, and very possibly attended by some very grave occurrence."
http://www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/article/0,9565,1220442,00.html
He thinks this is ever going to end? ROTFLMYA!
Posted by: snitramc | August 8, 2007 5:59 PM
dt,
Hey, do you want America to lose!? Just pretend the Iraqis are getting along famously!
Posted by: C.Morris | August 8, 2007 8:35 PM
C Mo,
I must have forgotten my blinders yesterday (or my rose colored glasses). Someone wake me up when this nightmare (BushCo) is over.
Posted by: TheReamer | August 9, 2007 10:59 AM