Opposition to Iraq war at all-time high

From CNN courtesy of Eschaton:

Opposition among Americans to the war in Iraq has reached a new high, with only about a third of respondents saying they favor it, according to a poll released Monday.

Just 35 percent of 1,033 adults polled say they favor the war in Iraq; 61 percent say they oppose it -- the highest opposition noted in any CNN poll since the conflict began more than three years ago.

Despite the rising opposition to the war, President Bush said the U.S. will not withdraw from Iraq while he is president.

"In this case, it would give the terrorists and extremists an additional tool besides safe haven, and that is revenues from oil sales," the president said. "Leaving before the job is done would be a disaster," he said.

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Upon occasion, because I'm less willing to swim in the sewers than I used to be, although I will from time to time listen to Drudge or Michael Reagan on the radio when I shower, I'm able to dope out some of the latest lines of right-wing rhetoric from my father, who is apparently a big fan of Rush and O'Reilly. When I was in Houston weekend before last, I accidentally let slip that most Americans want out of Iraq. Dad came back with an assertion that I was misreading the polls; the reality, he said, is that some want out immediately, while some want a timetable, while still others want out after the Iraqis are able to effectively police themselves. He told me that I was adding together all these different viewpoints, which he felt was unreasonable, and that the long and short of it all is that it is wrong to conclude a majority of Americans want out. Avoiding pointless conflict, I agreed that I was adding together the different viewpoints and left it at that.

But I still don't understand why adding together various "get out" opinions is unreasonable; I guess that's all the pro-war crowd has to defend themselves with these days.

At any rate, this recent CNN poll appears to cut to the chase, simply asking for a "favor" versus "oppose" position, which is pretty black and white if you ask me. Sixty one percent, if it was the margin of an election, would be considered a landslide. I think it's safe to say at this point that America unambiguously wants out. Strangely, or perhaps I mean fittingly, the ruling majority is deaf to the popular majority's will. I am greatly looking forward to the elections in November.

Also, and Atrios was all over this in another post today, it is very interesting to note that Bush has now pledged to not withdraw at all while he is in office. I said as much as early as two years ago, myself, when it was starting to become obvious that the neocon's plans for reorganizing the Middle East absolutely necessitate a strong and permanent US military presence in the region for decades to come. So everything is playing out according to the script.

What scares me is that future administrations, Republican or Democrat, may very well decide to stay, as well. The prize here is controlling world oil supplies in order to control the world economy. That's just too tempting to let go, even for "reality-based" Democratic Presidental hopefuls. I guess we'll see.

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