The New York Times/CBS News poll that was released on Monday got a fair bit of media attention. Most of the attention focused on the revelation that Americans, by an overwhelming margin, trust the military leadership to resolve the war in Iraq (68%), rather than Congress (21%) or the White House (5%). The remainder of the attention went to the poll's finding that most Americans don't think the surge has made a heck of a lot of progress.
There's one question buried way in the middle of the poll - 15 pages into the pdf - that I think deserves a lot more attention. Respondents were asked the following question: "What do you think the US is fighting for in Iraq?" The results were grim.
Terrorism 11%
Bring stability/democracy 30%
Help Iraqi people 4%
Oil 18%
Weapons of mass destruction -
Bush 5%
Combination 1%
Other 6%
Nothing 1%
DK/NA 23%
There seems to be some confusion among the American people when it comes to understanding what, exactly, our soldiers are being asked to kill and die for. Actually, confusion is putting it mildly. No one answer was chosen by more than 30% of those polled. "Don't Know/No Answer" was the second most popular choice. Four separate answers polled in the double digits.
We are losing people in Iraq every day, and we don't know why.
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Hegemony gets my vote.
Hubris comes in second.
I love the smell of Country Joe and the Fish in the morning. Here you go, with the Cheer to start off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5btZWbViPA&mode=related&search=
There can be multiple reasons for doing something, and I suspect that many of the respondents would have chosen more than one of the above if it was an option.
Those who chose "Bring stability/democracy" would probably also believe that it was "Helping the Iraqi people." And people who believe we are fighting for "Oil" must certainly also feel that it is because of "Bush."
I wonder why "Combination" wasn't more popular. Perhaps people didn't see that it was an option, or it was confusing in the poll.
Terrorism is anti-human being
Bring stability/democracy expected by most of us, except terrorists ;-)
Er, is "weapons of mass destruction" supposed to be blank?
I wonder how many votes oil would have gotten had it been a choice.
I wonder how many votes oil would have gotten had it been a choice.
Oil 18%
I want to see how many votes "Idiocy" would have got...
Err, that "idiocy" wasn't a dig at you, Moll, but at Bush and friends. Sorry, didn't notice my composition...