The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has published new survey findings indicating that the public appears to be getting the word that the mainstream media tries its best to ignore: conditions in Iraq are continuing to improve. In fact, the progress American forces are making in Iraq is becoming virtually impossible to discount.
According to the survey, almost 50 percent of Americans polled for the study had a positive outlook about recent developments in Iraq. Pew Research Center data indicate that an increasing percentage of American citizens believe that military operations in Iraq are leading to progress in cutting the number of Iraqi civilian deaths, fighting those responsible for the violence, and avoiding what recently looked like an inevitable civil war between Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites. The survey reports that opinions about the state of the Iraq war have continued to grow more positive since President Bush's surge of American troops began to yield tangible results. The percentage of those who believed the war was going fairly well or very well jumped to 48 percent from 34 percent just five months ago.
Of course, many of us not aligned with the defeatist movement sweeping the country in the recent past have always had faith that we were fighting for a just cause, and that our men and women in uniform were accomplishing the impossible. Now, the rest of America is beginning to take notice.
Of course, the survey reveals that a majority of Americans still want U.S. forces to begin coming home sooner rather than later, with 54 percent of those polled saying troop redeployments are more important than waiting for Iraq to stabilize. But will that desire remain the same if progress continues and casualties continue to decline? What if America finally realizes that casualty rates for U.S. soldiers in Iraq are the lowest of any prolonged American war?
Breaking the data down by party affiliation, the survey reveals that nearly three quarters of Republicans say the war effort is going well, and that the number of Democrats expressing that view has increased twofold since February, from 16 percent to 33 percent. For independents, the number was listed as 41 percent, up from 26 percent in February of this year. If this continues, the Iraq war will quickly cease to be the dominant issue of 2008.
Another interesting finding of the survey involved one word responses offered to describe the current situation in Iraq. While words such as TERRIBLE, BAD, and MESS still showed up in respondents' answers, the survey says that the word "IMPROVING" was used most often by those polled.
Public perception is changing because the amount of bad news coming out of Iraq has decreased substantially over the past several months. And while the mainstream media has chosen to ignore the positive trends, the efforts of the new media are finally beginning to pay off.
rate
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 17
Joe, the mainstream media has now begun to mention positive trends, even though they have been going on for about three months. Even now, despite repeated releases of statistics demonstrating decreasing levels of violence, many of the top newspapers print headlines like "Drop in Violence Marred by 5 Iraqi Deaths." You can't eliminate all the violence overnight, or even in the course of several months. There are too many factors at work in Iraq, and too many interested parties that commit violent acts for very different reasons. The main problem with the mainstream media now is that, having been forced to recognize decreasing levels of violence, they consistently offer their reports with caveats.
Greg - excellent article. I just featured it on the Positive War News group site:
www.positivenews.gather.com
Now, just ponder how much better these numbers would be if the media had been showing the outstanding job our military has been doing, their valor and bravery and how freedom has helped large numbers of Iraqi's - particularly the Kurds. I would wager that the positive poll numbers would increase by 10-20 points easily.
I watch CNN all the time. They're a good bellweather station to watch to determine how the nation is really going. Why? Because they're slightly Leftist...........and the folks screaming the loudest are from the anti-War crowd. Who do they go to when they want to make a public statement? Wolf Blitzer or Christiane Amanpour, of course.
Only recently has CNN begun reporting the positive news from Iraq. Up until about November 1st, they were still VERY down on the War. Overwhelming evidence about the huge recent positives in Iraq have forced them to reassess their position. I've also noticed that Wolf spends much less time on reporting the War these days. It's very noticeable from those of us who watch frequently.
" Merely the calm before the storm. . .
The clock is ticking."
Keep on hoping and wishing for the American military to be defeated, buddy. I love this guy............he's so anti-American that he makes Cindy Sheehan and her ilk look like decent, upstanding Bush-lovers.....LOL.
17 returnig Vets per day / 120 Per Month / oever 6000 per year- Commit Sucide. Both CBS and the Wll Street Journal have confirmed that FACT!!!
Doc E. Everett McFall
I'll post an article on that within the next two weeks.
Since when did anyone on the Left give a rat's ass about American soldiers? I smell yet another diversion tactic here.
If you guys on the Left actually cared, you'd shut your pie-holes while our troops cleaned house in the Middle East. That's how you show support. Not whining about statistics of dead soldiers you really don't care about. Its just another shameless and disingenuous attempt to push the discussion into a feedback loop.