By Robert Farrow

And I would have bet money that this poll would have been buried by the drive-by media.

Americans’ support for the initial invasion of Iraq has risen somewhat as the White House has continued to ask the public to reserve judgment about the war until at least the fall. In a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted over the weekend, 42 percent of Americans said that looking back, taking military action in Iraq was the right thing to do, while 51 percent said the United States should have stayed out of Iraq.

But two-thirds of those polled said the United States should reduce its forces in Iraq, or remove them altogether. Support for the invasion had been at an all-time low in May, when only 35 percent of Americans said the invasion of Iraq was the right thing and 61 percent said the United States should have stayed out. The latest poll made clear that a two-thirds majority of Americans continue to say the war is going badly.

However, the number of people who say the war is going “very badly” has fallen from 45 percent earlier in July to a current reading of 35 percent, and of those who say it is going well, 29 percent now describe it as “somewhat well” compared with 23 percent just last week.
Many of those who said the invasion was correct made it clear, however, that they are no longer convinced the United States should remain there.

“At the time that we went into Iraq, we had just come out of 9/11. The nation was in shock, frightened,” Sally Fisher of Garden City, Mich., said in a follow-up interview after the poll was conducted. “Looking back, I still think we should have gone in. Should we have stayed as long as we did? No.”

The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Friday through Sunday with 889 adults. The margin of sampling error for all adults is plus or minus three percentage points and larger for subgroups.
The poll’s findings are in line with those of one conducted last week by The New York Times and CBS News. Although both polls show a similar rise in overall support for the invasion, there was no change in measures like Mr. Bush’s handling of the war or how well the increase in troops is working, making it difficult to discern what the public may be reacting to.

At the end of a week that included a contentious Senate debate leading to an all-night session, Americans have a low opinion of Congress. Six in 10 Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing in general. When asked specifically about their opinions of how the Democrats and Republicans in Congress are handling the war, disapproval ratings are similar — 65 percent disapprove of the Republicans’ handling of Iraq and 59 percent disapprove of the Democrats’.

“If Congress isn’t ready to really go over there with enough force to change things now we might as well get out,” said Shawn Taylor of Hardin, Mont. “Either push the envelope and make it happen or leave it alone.”

The modest gains in support for the invasion of Iraq come at a time when Bush administration and top military commanders have called attention to what they say are signs of progress, and have urged patience pending a report due this fall from the top American commander in Iraq. The administration has also issued new warnings about heightened terrorist activity.

A majority of Americans say that in the long run, the United States will be safer from terrorism if it stays out of the affairs of countries in the Middle East. But there is a sharp party divide on the issue — 73 percent of Democrats, 60 percent of independents and 28 percent of Republicans agree.
Americans are divided over whether the Bush administration’s discussion of terrorism reflects a genuine concern or is a political tool. Half of those polled say the administration talks about the threat of terrorism to gain a political advantage; 39 percent say it is a genuine issue.
">the poll results are here. (Note how the Republicans get sampled less then the Democrats or the Independents.)

This, however, did not stop the Democrats from their treasonous ways as the piece of crap Murtha continued to aid al Qaeda by announcing he would use the Defense Appropriations Bill to set 60-day timeline to begin troop withdrawal from Iraq, implement the “slow-bleed” strategy, and close Gitmo.

So even when we are winning, the Democrats want us to lose.