Iraq War Polls
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James Joyner | Tuesday, December 18, 2007 |
Kevin Drum notes a strange paradox in the public opinion polling on Iraq:
[I]n every poll taken for the past three years, we’ve seen basically the same results: (a) a majority wants to leave Iraq within one or two years, and (b) almost nobody wants to leave right now. So where will all those people who want to leave within a year or two be when pollsters ask this question again in 2008? Most likely answer: they’ll still want to leave within a year or two and they still won’t want to leave right now.
I think that’s right. Essentially, people hold two contradictory thoughts in their head on this one:
- They want American soldiers to stop getting killed now.
- They don’t want to lose the war, even if they think getting in was a mistake.
So long as there’s hope of winning — however one defines that — the second will continue to trump the first.
Photo: China Daily/Reuters via Google Images.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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You forgot option # 3--prompted by the photo.
People want the war over, but they still like having opportunities for hippy broads to go shirtless during anti-war rallies.
What's behind the young lady's call for impeachment? I'd like to know!
Umm...peaches, maybe?
Hey, that's Hot Donna from "That's 70's Show"!
Ok, maybe not, but, what a set of twins eh?
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