A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll has measured a sea-change in the opinions of our military and military families.Nearly six out of every 10 military families disapprove of Bush's job performance and the way he has run the war, rating him only slightly better than the general population does.
The son of poll respondent Mary Meneely, 58, is an Air Force reservist, and served one tour in Afghanistan. Meneely commented that Bush,
...went into Iraq without justification, without a plan; he just decided to go in there and win, and he had no idea what was going to happen. There have been terrible deaths on our side, and it's even worse for the Iraqi population. It's another Vietnam.Previous surveys had demonstrated an erosion of support for Bush and the war among military personnel, including a 2005 poll by Military Times of their active-duty readers.
Now the disapproval of Bush appears to have transferred to his party. Republican leanings of military families that began with the Vietnam War -- when Democratic protests seemed to be aimed at the troops as much as the fighting -- have shifted, the poll results show.
David Segal, a military sociologist at the University of Maryland, concludes,You generally expect to see support for the president as commander in chief and for the war, but this is a different kind of war than those we've fought in the past, particularly for families.That's because it's not war, Davey, but an occupation. An illegitimate, un-welcomed, and unwanted occupation.
For future reference, the link given above references a handy interactive map of Iraq.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the stats is very interesting. The military families with Iraq vets are more likely to support immediate withdrawal, and are still more likely to support the Republican party than other "groups". It's like they think that the Democrats aren't capable of withdrawing us soon; let's hope they are wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe administration can't be surprised by these numbers, can they? (Ok, so yes, when you live with your head in the sand, pretty much anything in the real world can be a surprise.)
ReplyDeleteSue Datta, 61, whose youngest son, an Army staff sergeant, was seriously wounded in Iraq last year and is scheduled to redeploy in 2009. "I pray to God that they did not die in vain, but I don't think our president is even sensitive at all to what it's like to have a child serving over there."
ReplyDeleteFar too many people beside the Ferret share that fault.
I think it was last Thursday when The News Hour was showing the portraits of the last ten USA troops to die in Iraq. One of the guys was a 50-year-old Master Sergeant. I don't know why. I thought about that later the next morning. I still think about it. I still don't understand why
ReplyDeleteWe were watching Flags of Our Fathers the other day. I believe that war is just so godless and should only be used sparingly to DEFEND life (since it takes life). During WWII it did seem to have a goal overall...I just don't believe that our soldiers are dying for the same principles today. It seems clear that we're occupying for oil, and no one is asking us to buy bonds to pay for our exploits.
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