Pour more money

In a Gallup telephone poll of 1007 American adults conducted between 23 and 25 March, only 56%, give or take 3 percentage points, said they thought the war in Iraq was a mistake. This was somewhat lower than the proportion in December.

Among those identifying as Democrats, 82% said it was a mistake, the same proportion of Democrats as said there should be ‘a timetable for withdrawing all U.S. troops from Iraq no later than the fall of 2008’, not a terribly ambitious goal, particularly as they said the war was a mistake. Probably for a Democrat, persisting with a mistake for another eighteen months sounds like a good idea.

Only 48% of Democrats said they supported ‘Denying the funding needed to send any additional U.S. troops to Iraq’, which looks like a clear indication that over half of Democrats are content for Congress to go on funding the mistake.

Overall, only 36% supported withholding funding, and 60% withdrawing troops. Twenty-two percent said they believed ‘the surge’ was ‘making the situation worse’ in Baghdad, while 29% believed it was ‘making the situation better’, whatever that may mean.

Apparently, Gallup forgot to ask the respondents what it was about the war that they thought was a mistake, why they would want to pour more money into a mistake, and whether they thought George W Bush and his cronies ought to stand trial for crimes against humanity.