[lbo-talk] "stay the course" becoming unacceptable

[Doug Henwood]

[Frank Newport, Gallup ed-in-chief, writes in this week's commentary]

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.