Americans believe war effort improved, but question motives

By Staff
Bob Martin, The Alabama Scene
The Pew Research Center, a respected non-partisan and non-profit national polling and research organization, has just concluded a national survey on our opinions about the Iraq War as it enters its sixth year this month.
The Pew polling shows that five years after the start of the conflict the public view of the situation in Iraq has turned more positive, but there has been no reversal in the public’s opinion about the original decision to take military action in Iraq. While support of how things are going in Iraq have improved over the past year and more Americans now say we should keep troops there, the proportion saying the initial decision to go to war was wrong has increased since the spring of 2007.
In the center’s latest national survey, conducted Feb. 20-24 among 1,508 adults, a 54 percent majority said the U.S. made the wrong decision in using military force in Iraq, while 38 percent said it was the right decision. Last March, 49 percent said the decision to got to war was wrong, while 43 percent said it was right. During the third and fourth years of the conflict public opinion on this question was divided, while in the war’s first two years clear majorities backed the decision to use force in Iraq, the report, released last week stated.
The decrease in support for the decision to go to war has occurred despite a dramatically improved perception of how the effort in Iraq is going. In Pew’s latest survey, as many Americans say the military situation in Iraq is going well as say it is not going well (48 percent each). In February 2007, fully two-thirds (67 percent) said the war in Iraq was not going well – the largest percentage expressing this view since the war began. The current division on this question is comparable to public perceptions through most of the second and third years of the conflict, while evaluations turned decidedly negative during the fourth year, the report said.
We continue to be divided on whether to keep troops in Iraq or bring them home. The Pew poll shows a slim plurality of Americans (49 percent) now supports bringing the troops home as soon as possible, while 47 percent favor maintaining troops in Iraq until the situation there is stabilized. A year ago, a narrow majority (52 percent) favored a troop withdrawal as soon as possible, compared with 43 percent who favored keeping the troops in Iraq. Public support for a troop pullout peaked at 56 percent in June 2007. The percentage favoring withdrawing the troops as soon as possible is at its lowest level since mid-January 2007 (48 percent).
But no mater our opinion about troop levels or whether or not we should be there at all, the cost of the war continues.
The Center reports that public awareness of the number of American military fatalities in Iraq has declined sharply since last August. Today, just 28 percent of adults are able to say that approximately 4,000 Americans have died in the Iraq war.
Have we forgotten the sacrifices of so many of our fellow Americans and others amid the many other problems we have here at home? I hope not, and as we enter the sixth year in this war that a majority of Americans believe should never have happened, this is my periodic reminder about those sacrifices. The human tragedy toll to date is as follows: