[Peace-discuss] Obama wasn't "against this war from the beginning"

[C. G. Estabrook]

[This is primarily an exercise in manufacturing consent among Americans for
killing people who object to our controlling their countries and their
resources.  And it's clear that there's no "peace candidate," Republican or
Democrat -- unless McCain in desperation decides to take up that role...  --CGE]

	July 30, 2008
	Afghan War Edges Out Iraq as Most Important for U.S.
	Two-thirds say U.S. involvement in Afghanistan not a mistake
	by Frank Newport

PRINCETON, NJ -- By a slim margin, Americans say the war in Afghanistan is more
important for the United States than is the conflict in Iraq.

This question was asked for the first time in the July 25-27 USA Today/Gallup
poll, so there is no historical record of changes over time -- if any -- in the
public's views of the relative importance of these two wars.

President George W. Bush in essence began both wars, sending U.S. troops into
Afghanistan in the fall of 2001, and into Iraq in March 2003. Faced with this
choice between the two, however, Republicans tilt toward saying the Iraq
conflict is more important. Independents and Democrats say the Afghan war is
more important.

These results reinforce the conclusion that the Iraq war has been the more
politicized (and controversial) of the two wars.

Support for the War in Afghanistan

Americans appear to strongly support the initial decision to go to war in
Afghanistan, based on responses to Gallup's classic "mistake" question (which
has been asked about U.S. conflicts since the Korean War in the early 1950s).
Two-thirds (68%) affirm the basis for sending military forces to Afghanistan,
saying it was not a mistake.

Support for U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan decreased between 2002 and
2004, but has remained fairly constant since that point.

The poll showing two-thirds of Americans who say the war in Afghanistan was not
a mistake can be contrasted to polling in recent years showing that the majority
of Americans have consistently said the war in Iraq was a mistake.

There is a significant difference in the way the three partisan groups respond
to this question, although less than half of any group says the Afghanistan
intervention was a mistake.

There has been a good deal of negative publicity about the way things are going
for the United States in Afghanistan in recent months, but the current poll
shows only a slight increase in the percentage of Americans who say things are
going badly there. In general, views of the way the war is going are split.

Deploy More Troops in Afghanistan?

Should the United States send additional troops to Afghanistan, as has been
advocated by some? The answer is a clear "yes" in the context of using those
troops to combat terrorists.

The weekend poll included a question in which a random half of respondents were
asked whether they favored or opposed sending additional U.S. troops "from Iraq"
to Afghanistan to fight al Qaeda and Taliban terrorist operations. The other
half were asked about sending U.S. troops to fight terrorists, but with no
mention of where those troops would come from.

The results show that it makes little difference whether the "from Iraq" clause
is included in the question wording; a majority favors sending additional troops
in either circumstance. There has been little change in these responses since
last summer.

There are interesting differences by party in response to this question about
sending in more troops. Republicans are more in favor of sending in troops when
there is no mention of "from Iraq." Democrats are more in favor with the "from
Iraq" inclusion. This result follows from the evidence reviewed here, which
shows that Democrats feel the war in Afghanistan is more important than the war
in Iraq, while Republicans say the opposite. Republicans favor sending more
troops to Afghanistan regardless, but a little less so if it means taking them
away from Iraq. Democrats are more likely to approve of moving troops to
Afghanistan if they come from Iraq...

http://www.gallup.com/poll/109150/Afghan-War-Edges-Iraq-Most-Important-US.aspx