excerpt from article:
Remarkably, the two justifications most frequently mentioned by the
troops were those that were discredited after the invasion. Forty-one
percent said stopping 'Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq'' was
the 'main reason,'' while another 36 percent said it was a 'major
reason.'' At the same time, 35 percent said 'retaliat(ing) for
Saddam's role in the 9/11 attacks'' was the 'main reason'', and 50
percent called it a 'major reason.''
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full article:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32332
Poll of US Troops in Iraq Underlines Growing Pressure to Withdraw
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (IPS) - The findings of an unprecedented poll of
U.S. troops in Iraq are certain to add to steadily growing pressures
on the administration of President George W. Bush to accelerate
Washington's withdrawal from a country that is increasingly seen as
being on the verge of civil war.
Along with signs of disaffection and confusion in military ranks,
recent surveys of public opinion at home have shown growing pessimism
about the war, while even some of Bush's staunchest right-wing
supporters, such as National Review founder William F. Buckley, are
calling the president's Iraq adventure a failure.
The military survey, carried out between mid-January and mid-February
by Le Moyne College's Centre for Peace and Global Studies and the
Zogby International polling firm, found that more than half of U.S.
troops in Iraq (51 percent) favour a full withdrawal either
'immediately'' (29 percent) or within six months (22 percent).
An additional 21 percent told interviewers that U.S. troops should
leave Iraq between six and 12 months from now, while only 23 percent
-- or less than one in four -- agreed with official Bush policy that
the troops should stay 'as long as they are needed.''
The face-to-face survey of 944 military respondents, whose names and
specific locations were withheld for security reasons, is the latest
in a series of polls showing a continued erosion of support for the
Iraq war, as well as for Bush himself.
According to a New York Times-CBS poll released Tuesday, Bush's
public-approval ratings have fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent
-- down eight points from January, and lower even than the 35 percent
he held in a CBS poll last October in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Iraq, along with the controversy over the administration's approval of
a Dubai company to take over the management of terminals in six major
U.S. ports, appears to be a major part of the latest decline. Only 30
percent of respondents said they approved of his management of the
situation there, compared to 65 percent who said they disapproved.
That result echoes a recent Gallup poll that found the public more
pessimistic than ever about progress in the Iraq war: only 31 percent
-- almost all of them self-identified Republicans -- said they thought
Washington and its allies were winning there.
The rising tide of popular discontent with the Iraq war --
particularly amid growing signs that the country is moving toward
civil war and steadily accumulating evidence that the administration
failed totally to prepare for the aftermath of the 2003 invasion --
has also prompted a growing number of defections from the war party's
ranks.
'One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed,''
Buckley, a right-wing heavyweight for decades, wrote last weekend
after a surge of sectarian violence sparked by the bombing of an
important Shia shrine swept through key Iraqi cities. '(T)he kernel
here is the acknowledgement of defeat.''
Several days later, another prominent right-winger, Bruce Fein, wrote
in the Washington Times that last week's violence was 'sufficient
proof that post-Saddam nation-building has failed. ΰPresident Bush
should immediately begin an orderly withdrawal of U..S. troops from
Iraq.''
In anticipation of these desertions, as well as declining public
support for the war, neo-conservative activists who led the campaign
to invade Iraq have been trying hard over the past two weeks to rally
the public with a series of columns -- a remarkable number of them
from Iraq 'with the troops'' -- extolling their grit, goodness and
determination and warning against defeatism at home.
'Can-do Americans courageously go about their duty in Iraq -- mostly
unafraid that a culture of 2,000 years, the reality of geography, the
sheer forces of language and religion, the propaganda of state-run
Arab media, and the cynicism of the liberal West are all stacked
against them,'' wrote California classicist Victor Davis Hanson, a
favourite of Vice President ***** Cheney, in the National Review
Online.
'Iraq may not have started out as the pivotal front in the war
between democracy and fascism, but it has surely evolved into that,''
he declared, stressing that Washington's current strategy should carry
the day.
The new LeMoyne/Zogby poll, however, tells a somewhat different story,
at least from the point of view of its military respondents, nearly 75
percent of whom were serving their second, third, or fourth six-month
tour in Iraq at the time of their interview..
No less than 72 percent said U.S. troops should stay no longer than
one year in Iraq. What is particularly remarkable is the 51 percent
majority who favour withdrawal within six months. That corresponds
precisely to the position of Democratic Rep. John Murtha, a highly
decorated Marine veteran with long-standing ties to the military
brass, whose impassioned appeals for a swift redeployment have been
denounced by Hanson and other right-wing hawks in and outside the
administration as surrender and a betrayal of the troops.
The respondents -- 41 percent regular Army; 25 percent Marines; and
the rest National Guard and Reserves -- also showed uncertainty about
their mission in Iraq.
While some 27 percent said they were 'very clear'' about the mission,
nearly one third said they were 'somewhat clear,'' 20 percent
'somewhat unclear;'' and nearly 25 percent either 'very unclear,''
'not sure,'' or had 'no understanding.''
Asked to assess the relative importance of the different
justifications for the war articulated by Bush over the last several
years, three in four soldiers said 'establish(ing) a democracy that
could be a model for the Arab world'' -- the justification most
recently cited by Bush -- was neither the 'main'' nor even a 'major
reason'' for the U.S. intervention.
More than 90 percent also did not accept the justification most cited
by the administration before the war -- to enforce U.N. resolutions
requiring the destruction or removal of weapons of mass destruction
(WMD) from Iraq. Less than five percent of respondents cited that as
the 'main'' or a 'major reason.''
Remarkably, the two justifications most frequently mentioned by the
troops were those that were discredited after the invasion. Forty-one
percent said stopping 'Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq'' was
the 'main reason,'' while another 36 percent said it was a 'major
reason.'' At the same time, 35 percent said 'retaliat(ing) for
Saddam's role in the 9/11 attacks'' was the 'main reason'', and 50
percent called it a 'major reason.''
Contrary to the administration's view, most troops also believe that
controlling the insurgency -- which they see as overwhelmingly
indigenous -- would require doubling the number of ground troops and
bombing missions.
'The sense is that they're not necessarily really seeing themselves
in this war fighting against al Qaeda, but more so fighting in the
midst of what's turning out to be a civil war,'' said Zogby, who noted
ominous parallels in soldiers' attitudes with the Vietnam War.
'These are the sorts of sentiments you started to hear and see
impressionistically from troops coming home towards the end of
Vietnam, the sense that why were we there in the first place,
confusion, and what do we accomplish by staying there?''
Zogby said he was confident that the survey was representative of the
troops serving in Iraq. 'We chose good locations; we used random
sampling; the methodology was tight,'' he said. 'We stand by the
results.''
The Pentagon, which neither authorised nor co-operated with the
survey, had no comment. (END/2006)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32332
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