Military Holds Most Trust in Iraq Debate, New Poll Finds
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and MEGAN THEE
Published: September 10, 2007
Sept. 9 — Americans trust military commanders far more than the Bush administration or Congress to bring the war in Iraq to a successful end, and while most favor a withdrawal of American troops beginning next year, they suggested they are open to doing so at a measured pace, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.
On the eve of what is sure to be a contentious debate on Iraq, the poll’s results underscored the benefits to the White House of President Bush’s decision to entrust the top American commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, with making the case that an increase in American forces this year had been sufficiently successful that it should continue into next year.
On Monday, General Petraeus will appear on Capitol Hill along with the American ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker, in what has become the most anticipated testimony from a military commander in decades.
Only 5 percent of Americans — a strikingly low number for a sitting president’s handling of such a dominant issue — said they most trust the Bush administration to resolve the war, the poll found. Asked to choose between the administration, Congress and military commanders, 21 percent said they would most trust Congress and 68 percent expressed most trust in military commanders.
That is almost certainly why the White House has presented General Petraeus and Mr. Crocker as unbiased professionals, not Bush partisans, although some Democrats took some issue with that characterization ahead of the week’s debate.
“I don’t think he’s an independent evaluator,” Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat from California, said on “Fox News Sunday.” A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, responded sharply, saying, “Attacking him in this way is reprehensible.”
Still, the poll showed how difficult the White House’s task of sustaining support for an unpopular war had become. There is a deepening disillusion over the war’s course and its purpose with the highest numbers of Americans so far saying the war was a mistake, 62 percent, and not worth the loss of American lives and other costs, 59 percent.
A majority, 53 percent, did not think that Iraq would ever become a stable democracy. Still more, 70 percent, did not think the Iraqi government, lead by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, was doing all it could to bring stability.
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Source: Military Holds Most Trust in Iraq Debate, New Poll Finds - New York Times
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