Support for war in Iraq continues to drop

By Staff Writer
October 28, 2005

KRT

Public support is slipping drastically concerning the U.S. involvement over in Iraq. According to CBS, “Americans reject financing the war through an increased federal deficit, and 62 percent would finance paying for the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast by cutting spending in Iraq.”

When America first took action over in Iraq in 2003, most U.S. citizens thought that the president was doing the correct thing. Polls from 2003 showed that 69 percent of Americans believed that the country did right by sending troops to Iraq, while 25 percent thought the U.S. should have stayed out of Iraq all together.

Since then, the percentage of people favoring the war has dropped drastically. As of right now, only 41 percent of people think that the United States should be at war while 55 percent say that U.S. forces should have stayed out, which is the highest figure to date.

Dr. James Hedtke, a professor of history and political science, said, “Two of the three reasons to enter war in Iraq were not valid. If support of the war goes down, so does the national morale. If we lose determination to continue war, we lose our will to use power.”

Those three reasons to enter war in Iraq were to move Al Quada out of Iraq, get rid of weapons of mass destruction and to bring down the regime and help the Iraqis establish a democracy.

At this point in time, two of the three have been unsuccessful, leaving only helping the Iraqis establish a democracy as the only positive.

“After Sept. 11, I felt that we had reason to be over there, and I think that everyone did. Since then, my opinion has changed. I don’t feel that our troops should be over there in mass numbers. We have soldiers over there dying and for what reason,” Matt McKinney, a sophomore English and communication major, said. “We are trying to enforce a government on another country, and I don’t think that it is right.”

Beau Nickerson, a sophomore business administration major, said, “I think we did the right thing by entering Iraq because there were things that had to be done. As of right now, I guess I still feel the same way, but there are some areas that you can argue with. Right now the Iraqis are voting on a proposed constitution that will bring democracy to Iraq which is a step in the right direction for that country and could hopefully limit our involvement over there.”

Many Americans are angry over the fact that soldiers are in Iraq, risking their lives for reasons that are not valid.

As of right now, it looks very certain that the proposed constitution, which the Iraqi people voted on during the weekend of Oct. 15 and 16, will be passed, considering over 60 percent of eligible voters came out to cast their ballots, despite the widespread threat of violence from insurgents.

For all that want the war to be over and for troops to start returning home, the voting on the constitution is a crucial step in that process. If passed and insurgency is tamed, it will enable the 150,000 U.S. troops to begin to withdraw, which will please a majority of Americans, if recent polls are correct.

According to Hedtke, this may be easier said than done. “No matter what happens, insurgency is going to continue. It is a vicious cycle that we cannot get out of. The easy thing was entering war; the hard part is leaving,” Hedtke said.

Loquitur welcomes your comments on this story. Please send your comments to: Loquitur@yahoogroups.com. The editors will review your points each week and make corrections if warranted.

Posted to the web by Shane Evans

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