Iraq
What do Americans want Bush to do about Iraq?
We asked Americans last week: "If you could talk with President Bush for 15 minutes about the situation in Iraq, what would you, personally, advise him to do?"
Consistent with other polling, a majority of Americans support extricating America from Iraq. This broad category of responses includes those who would tell the president to pull the troops out and come home (by far the dominant response to the question), those who would urge the president to come up with and execute a well-thought-out exit strategy, and those who would tell Bush to get the Iraqis trained and allow them to run their own country. Others would advise the president to keep the public better informed, join in and with work with the United Nations, admit to past mistakes and apologize, and work with and improve his advisers.
The idea of waiting for democracy to take hold in Iraq seems moot to Americans. A majority does not believe it will ever be possible to build a stable, democratic government in that country. A "stay-the-course" strategy is clearly becoming less acceptable to many Americans.