Do Americans Want To Cut And Run?
Investors Business Daily reports on a poll they conducted earlier this month that appears to contradict the conventional wisdom that the midterms were a referendum on the war. In fact, the IBD poll shows that sentiment has actually built towards a commitment to victory in Iraq, and they angrily denounce John Murtha and the defeatists (via Power Line):
There's a reason the founders of this country designated a single commander in chief and placed the responsibility to wage war in the hands of the president. We saw recently the futility of having 100 commanders in chief when the Senate tried to pass a resolution of disapproval of the war in Iraq and couldn't agree on the terms of our surrender.Now it's the House of Representatives' turn, led by Rep. John Murtha, who believes the fine young men and women we send to defeat terror and our sworn enemies are cold-blooded killers. While the House works on its own nonbinding resolution, Murtha has bigger plans and considers such a resolution only a prelude to the real battle in March over appropriations for the war. ...
Murtha plans to stop the Iraq War by placing four conditions on combat funds through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. The Pentagon would have to certify that troops being sent to Iraq are "fully combat ready" with training and equipment, troops must have at least one year at home between combat deployments, combat deployments cannot be longer than a year, and extending tours of duty would be prohibited.
"We're trying to force a redeployment not by taking money away, (but) by redirecting money," explained Murtha.
IBD doesn't give any of the raw data on the poll in this editorial. It was taken a week ago and surveyed 925 adults, and would probably have around a +/-4% margin of error. It shows that the numbers of people believing victory in Iraq important have actually increased since the midterms -- in both parties. The number of people hopeful for victory has remained fairly constant, and even among Democrats, 43% say they are hopeful that the US and the Iraqi government will prevail.
If the Democrats in Congress think that forcing failure will help them in the next election, they may be in for a shock.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on February 18, 2007 2:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (3)
