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Saturday, October 04, 2003
WAS THE WAR ON IRAQ WORTH IT? AMERICA SAYS NO.
External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/03/national/03POLL.html
A new New York Times / CBS poll finds that Americans think the War on Iraq was a mistake by a ratio of 53 to 41, with 6 percent undecided. The New York Times buries this in the 13th paragraph of their story about the poll. And here's what they say about it, which I find misleading:
"Now there are growing doubts about whether the results were worth the loss of life and other costs involved. Only 41 percent said it was, while 53 percent said it was not. When the question was asked using Saddam Hussein's name, the results were almost reversed, with about half those surveyed le saying it was worth removing him from power, and 41 percent saying it was not."
But here are the two questions they ask, which do more than just put Saddam's name in the question:
Half the people were asked, "Do you think removing Saddam Hussein from power is worth the potential loss of American life and the other costs of attacking Iraq, or not?" to which 51% said yes, 41% said no, and 8% were undecided.
The other half of the people were asked, "Do you think the result of the war with Iraq was worth the loss of American life and other costs of attacking Iraq or not?" to which 41% said yes, 53% said no, and 6% were undecided.
In other words, only a bare majority of Americans think that removing Saddam Hussein from power is worth the POTENTIAL (as opposed to past) loss of life that may result from that. But a majority greater than the margin of error of the poll say that, "the result of the Iraq war" wasn't worth it. But the result of the Iraq war includes a lot of things besides the removal of Saddam from power. It includes hundreds of dead Americans, the serious weakening of American foreign relations, a serious quagmire with no exit strategy for our troops, and a Saddam Hussein still at large with a billion dollars and a serious grudge against America.
In other words, the first question can reasonably be interpreted as, "Would it be worth the cost and lives to remove Saddam Hussein, if it could be done without creating other serious problems." But the second question can only be interpreted as "What do you think of the job we actually did in removing Saddam Hussein from power?" That is, main difference between the two questions is not that one names Saddam and one does not. The difference is that one names the disastrous Iraq war, and one does not.
Here's another incredible finding, I think:
Do you think the war in Iraq is still going on or is the war over? 87% say it's still going on. 10% say it's Over. 1% volunteer that it "depends". And 2% don't know or don't answer. So much for the campaign commercial featuring bush in his flight suit.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/10/was-war-on-iraq-worth-it-america-says.html
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