Americans Increasingly Divided Over Iraq (47% for withdrawal)

[ProSense]

Americans Increasingly Divided Over Iraq

Margin Opposing Withdrawal of Troops Is Dwindling

By Richard Morin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 26, 2006; 7:24 AM

Snip...

Among the 47 percent who favor a deadline, nearly half say U.S. troops should be out of Iraq within six months, while a third favor giving the military a year to leave. Those results are virtually identical to findings from the December poll.

The deadline issue continues to split the country along partisan lines. Two thirds of all Democrats currently favor setting a deadline, double the proportion of Republicans who favor a strict timetable for exiting. Among independent, fewer than half--44 percent--support a deadline for withdrawing troops.

But even among rank-and-file Democrats there is no strong call for immediate withdrawal, the survey suggests. A little more than a third---36 percent--of all Democrats said they favored getting the troops out in six months or less.

Last week the Republican-held Senate easily defeated a proposal by Democratic Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin want to pull out all combat forces over the next year. That proposal had raised fears among some party leaders that it pushed the party too far to the left and could endanger the re-election of some prominent Democrats, including Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Maria Cantwell of Washington.

more....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/26/AR2006062600250.html?nav=rss_politics

[Demeter]

1. Divided, or Decided?

Too many people remember Vietnam too well to want to endure another round.

[annabanana]

2. This is either very badly written, or very craftily...

"There are still more Americans who oppose withdrawal than support it, but the margin is dwindling."

(no numbers for this assertion)

"The survey found that 47 percent of the country now favors setting a deadline for troops to exit from Iraq, up eight percentage points since December."

(confusion, due to lack of numbers for previous assertion)

"The deadline issue continues to split the country along partisan lines"

(Does this mean that there is no longer any question that Americans WANT OUT!!?)


Shame on WaPo, yet again.

(on edit: I emailed him these questions)

[ProSense]

3. This article is major spin! n/t

[marmar]

4. OK, 47 percent, plus another third (33 percent)...

want the troops out either in 6 mos. or a year, if I'm reading it correctly. Their headline is very misleading. What I'm reading is that 80 percent want the troops out on a timetable.