Sunday, August 01, 2010

War Polling

It's funny how pundits deal with polling about the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. There's an understanding amongst the media that the occupation is necessary, and any opposition to that is outside the mainstream and irresponsible to discuss.* This makes discussing polls difficult, since polls have indicated that a majority of Americans are in favor of abandoning our Middle East adventure today. If polling got to determine our foreign policy, we'd have left both Iraq and Afghanistan years ago. We wouldn't even leave a government** in our wake; Every American soldier would just pack their bags and get into the nearest plane, with no concern whatsoever for the people left behind. The American people simply don't care about the people of the Middle East. Or rather, they care far more about their taxes, their family, and their friends that have involuntarily recalled back to a country that they hadn't heard of ten years ago.

Maybe that position is irresponsible, maybe we can't afford to leave either Iraq or Afghanistan in that state. But it's simply disingenuous to pretend that people support "Obama's policy" or "The Republican Policy". The only reason they say they support either strategy is that they weren't given the option of the "Let's Just Get The Hell Out Of Here Policy".

*This doesn't mean everyone has to support it, they just can't seriously voice the opinion that we should leave immediately.
**Or a occupation Vichy-esque government, which is what we have now in Iraq and Afghanistan

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