Rasmussen Reports: Americans divided on Iraq withdrawal

WorldNetDaily: Most Americans against troop withdrawal:

"Overall, 44 percent of Americans view the U.S. troops in Iraq as a liberating force while 35 percent say they are an occupying force."

The most remarkable thing about this poll, in my view, is that the question that elicited the foregoing response could be asked at all. It ought to be apparent that liberating and occupying are both essential functions of the Anglo-American venture into Iraq.

WND's headline is a bit off the mark. The key finding is not that a bare majority recognizes the danger of a precipitate withdrawal, but that so many Democrats don't understand that you can't unring a bell. By a margin of only 33 to 30 percent Democrats agree that withdrawal now would make things in Iraq first. The plurality of 37 percent, whose views are not reported here, presumably include those who are unsure of the effect of a quick pull-out, those who are unsure what or where Iraq is, or those who don't know how to pull out.

I have often said that I would not have chosen to invade and occupy and liberate and try to plant democracy in Iraq. Perhaps I do not love Iraqis enough, but it is not a course I would have chosen. A policy short of all this that gave promise of getting rid of Saddam Hussein might have been worth the candle, but this was a reach too far in my view. Yet, "in for a penny, in for a pound" as the old saying goes. Or, if you prefer another old saying, remember that sign in the china shop, "if you break it, you've bought it." We are in and we will have to stay in until some semblance of stability is reached, even if it falls short of someone's ideal of democracy, so that leaving won't make us look weak and defeated.