The Iraq Tide Is Out
June 9, 2005
The tide of public opinion has finally gone out on the Iraq War.
And it won't be coming back in anytime soon.
According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, "nearly three quarters of Americans say the number of casualties in Iraq is unacceptable."
Already, Bush's illegal and duplicitous war has taken the lives of 1,676 U.S. soldiers and wounded 12,861.
And anywhere between 22,000 and 100,000 Iraqi civilians may have been killed, as well.
Here are some other poll numbers that spell trouble for Bush: "Two-thirds say the U.S. military there is bogged down, and nearly six in ten say the war was not worth the price," according to the Post article.
And there's more: The chief reason that Bush cites, at least these days, for the war is to make the United States safer from terrorist attacks.
But a majority of the American people isn't buying that one, either: 52 percent say it has not contributed to our long-term security.
Maybe the Downing Street memo is finally sinking in here: the reality that Bush hoodwinked the American people into war.
But more likely it's the daily, grinding image of chaos in Iraq and the immediate, devastating news of young Americans from every county in America dying in this useless war.
The real question now, for our supposed democracy, is how long will it take for our government to get us out of this war that the people now disapprove of.
That lag time will be a true measure of unresponsiveness.