Public Supports Iraq Withdrawal (Except Republicans)

Recently President Obama announced the real end of the Iraq War is getting near. He said the United States will withdraw all of its soldiers from Iraq by the end of this year, finally ending the unnecessary war that has dragged on for years. Almost immediately, Republican politicians began to complain. They make it sound like the United States is in danger unless the war is permitted to drag on for even longer -- a ridiculous assertion since Iraq has never posed a danger to this country.

And listening to the congressional Republicans and Republican presidential candidates complain about the impending withdrawal, one might think there is some real disagreement among the general public about whether the war should be ended or not. Fortunately, this is simply not true. A substantial majority of the American people support the president's decision to withdraw all the troops.

This is verified by a new poll done by the Gallup organization. The poll was done on October 29th and 30th by surveying a nationwide random sample of adults (and has a margin of error of 4 points). This poll shows that a full 75% of the American people believe the withdrawal is a good thing and they support it. Only 21% disagree.

When the poll is broken down into political groups we see the approval is even higher among both Democrats and Independents. Democrats show a 96% approval of the president's actions, and 77% of all Independents agree with it. The only disagreement comes with the Republicans, of which 52% think the seemingly endless war should be continued.

That is why the Republican politicians continue to preach war. They supported the unnecessary war when Bush started it and they have continued to support it in spite of evidence that it never should have happened. They have supported it so hard and long that they have convinced the majority of their base. Now they have painted themselves into a corner. If they acknowledge the reality that it is time for the war to end, they will lose the support of their base (the people they've convinced that the war is good).

So the Republican politicians will continue to preach war, but that doesn't matter. The war will end on the last day of this year, and the huge majority of Americans support that. They are ready for an end to that ridiculous misadventure.

Now we need to convince the president that it's time to leave Afghanistan too.