What do Americans think of the Iraq War?

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Not good things, it seems:

A CBS News poll shows Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with the Iraq war, President Bush and the Congress, as well as the overall direction of the country.

More Americans than ever before, 77 percent, say the war is going badly, up from 66 percent just two months ago. Nearly half, 47 percent, say it's going very badly.

While the springtime surge in U.S. troops to Iraq is now complete, more Americans than ever are calling for U.S. forces to withdraw. Sixty-six percent say the number of U.S. troops in Iraq should be decreased, including 40 percent who want all U.S. troops removed. That's a 7-point increase since April.

Not good -- as in: the war is not going well and is in fact going rather badly. But what is good about what the American people think about the Iraq War is that more and more of them are coming to see the war for what it is and are not buying the spin from the warmongers. And what is becoming clearer and clearer is that those warmongers are waging this war against the will of the American people. They may not care, so utterly consumed are they by their own delusions of grandeur and righteousness, but, as the midterms of '06 showed us, the will of the people is ignored at one's political peril.

American democracy may not be as strong as it ought to be -- the warmongers and their ilk, with Cheney running the show and ruling without oversight, may have done their best/worst to drive a stake through it -- but America is still a democracy. And the people are speaking.