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Tuesday, January 02, 2007

While the right wing obsesses about John Kerry....
Posted by Jill | 10:24 PM
...the people who are actually fighting this war are unhappy with their Commander-in-Chief's Iraq debacle.

Yes, folks, the wingnuts are still frothing at the mouth at what may or may not be a doctored photo of John Kerry (who last time I checked is NOT the president) being shunned by troops of some nationality (note the British flag in the background of the photo. What this means in the larger sphere of things, I'm not sure. Are they trying to see some kind of reassurance that we are better off with an incompetent, drunken, raving lunatic in his second term than some guy who they think "looks French"? Or is John Kerry the much-loathed president out there in Truthiland where these people live?

Here on consensus reality, the American military is pretty damn pissed off at the Deserter-in-Chief:

For the first time, more troops disapprove of the president’s han dling of the war than approve of it. Barely one-third of service members approve of the way the president is handling the war, ac cording to the 2006 Military Times Poll.

When the military was feeling most optimistic about the war — in 2004 — 83 percent of poll re spondents thought success in Iraq was likely. This year, that number has shrunk to 50 percent.

Only 35 percent of the military members polled this year said they approve of the way President Bush is handling the war, while 42 percent said they disapproved. The president’s approval rating among the military is only slight ly higher than for the population as a whole. In 2004, when his popularity peaked, 63 percent of the military approved of Bush’s handling of the war. While ap proval of the president’s war lead ership has slumped, his overall approval remains high among the military.

Just as telling, in this year’s poll only 41 percent of the military said the U.S. should have gone to war in Iraq in the first place, down from 65 percent in 2003. That closely reflects the beliefs of the general population today — 45 percent agreed in a recent USA Today/Gallup poll.

Professor David Segal, director of the Center for Research on Mil itary Organization at the Univer sity of Maryland, was not sur prised by the changing attitude within the military.

“They’re seeing more casualties and fatalities and less progress,” Segal said.

He added, “Part of what we’re seeing is a recognition that the in telligence that led to the war was wrong.”


These are just devastating numbers for a Commander-in-Chief who likes to see himself as a war president. And no matter how much the Bush apologists want to delude themselves that if a few soldiers don't much care for John Kerry (whom many of us on the left don't care for either) it somehow vindicates the complete and utter botch that George W. Bush has made of his ill-advised war, we do still live in a world of facts, not one of truthiness.
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