Iraq now a weakness?

Great Debates
1

Something occurs to me that I hadn’t truly expected to be the case. At one time Bush’s Iraq policy seemed to be really supported among the American populace. At one time, people against the Iraq war seemed to be marginalized, especially if you listen to the conservatives on this board. So I really didn’t expect Iraq to become a big campaign issue once Howard Dean dropped out of the race. Opposition to the war before that seemed to be mostly a liberal issue. But with tonight’s debate and the first debate Bush has been hammered on Iraq. So my question is this, is the American public more ambivalent about the Iraq war than TV news would lead you to expect? Also why?

In the interest of disclosure, I’ve always been against the Iraq invasion and in fact told my wife and just about anyone who would listen that we’d be in Iraq when my kids had kids if we went. Being a member of this board also more or less reinforced that position so I’d taken to believing the board is not representative of the population at large. Especially when all the no WMDs (since 1991 since we have some semantics stickler people) hadn’t been getting the traction IRL as it was on the boards. Was I wrong?

2

It depends on who you ask. As of last week, 62% of Republicans still believed that Saddam Hussein was active in the planning of the Sept. 11th massacres. :dubious: Their beloved leaders kept saying it, so they kept believing it. Boy, it’s too bad I’m not in the used bridge business.

3

The SMDB was never a sample of regular people… we know it and we should always take it into consideration. Anyway why would you want to share a board with common ordinary people ? :slight_smile:

As for the war… I think you’re right. Except that its not about being AGAINST the war… more about NOT being in favor… or not feeling its a good war. (As far as the US public go of course) So being in favor of the war doesn’t mean being marginalized as anti-war people were in past… but you certainly have to “back up” your support or justify it. Its not automatic.

So using Bush’s logic… the american public are being “weak” and flip “flopping” about the war and with good reasons.