Harris Poll: American Public Thinks Iraq Has Hurt "War on Terror"

*By a 61%-37% margin, Americans believe that "Invading and occupying Iraq has motivated more Islamic terrorists to attack Americans and U.S."

*By a 58%-41% margin, Americans do NOT believe that the invasion has helped "reduce [the] threat of another terror attack against the US."

*By a 56%-42% margin, Americans believe that the money spent on Iraq has meant "a lot less money...available to protect U.S. from another terrorist attack."

*By a 68%-28% margin, Americans believe the invasion of Iraq has made the U.S. less, not "more respected in the world."

*Finally, by a 2:1 margin, the American people do not believe that we will be out of Iraq "two years from now."

Not good, not good at all.

Interestingly, these strongly negative poll results for the Iraq invasion come despite the fact that Americans still believe - against all evidence to the contrary - that a) "Saddam had strong links with Al Qaeda" (64%-30%) and b) "Iraq had WMDs when the U.S. invaded."  Imagine if Americans were aware of the truth, carefully obscured by Bush Administration Big Lie rhetoric, that Saddam and Al Qaeda despised each other, and that Iraq had no WMD?  What would the poll numbers look like then?  I can only imagine.

By the way, Jim Webb is very much in sync with the American people about the Iraqi invasion and the harm it's inflicted in our prosecution of the "war on terror."  In February 2004, Webb wrote that Bush "committed the greatest strategic blunder in modern memory" by invading Iraq, and that "our military is being forced to trade away its maneuverability in the wider war against terrorism while being placed on the defensive in a single country that never will fully accept its presence."  Absolutely right, even more 2 years later than when Webb originally wrote those words.  Anyone know where Osama "dead or alive" Bin Laden's hanging out these days?

P.S.  I wonder what our friend George Allen would have to say about this?  The "liberal media" again?  "Activist judges," perhaps?  Ha.

Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign.  The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.

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