They Really Hate Us

During his opening statement, Rep. Ike Skelton referenced a poll just released today showing that Iraqis don't believe the surge is working. It seems that Skelton, like me, made the mistake of reading The Washington Post's summary of the poll, rather than the BBC writeup which highlights the much more striking fact that "nearly 60% see attacks on US-led forces as justified."

This is something we've seen several times in polls of Iraqi opinion, but it never seems to penetrate. It seems to me that even 10-25 percent of the population actively approving of attacks on American troops might make our mission there impossible. But when an actual majority support killing our soldiers, then how, exactly, are the soldiers supposed to help Iraq's population? It just doesn't make sense, on any level, to think that a giant military deployment can play a constructive role under these circumstances.