Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>
> But the seeds of Bush's woes were planted early on. Just seven months
> into the Iraq war, Gallup found that the percentage of Americans who
> viewed the sending of troops as a mistake had jumped substantially -
> from 25 percent in March 2003 to 40 percent in October 2003.
Both Yoshie and I argued from early in the war (I think in reference to the invasion of Afghanistan) that 10%+ opposition was a HUGE number to be opposed. If a war begins with that many in opposition, the opposition is bound to grow rapidly at some point. But the majority now opposed does not constitute a really serious opposition yet: too much of the opposition is merely passive, and passive public opinion doesn't really accomplish much, though it can constitute a powerful context for active opposition.
Carrol