U.S. Public Opinion Turns Against the Iraq War (2007)

and Ruben Navarate, a syndicated columnist and editorial writer at the San Diego Tribune. Rod Dreir, I'd like to ask you, we just heard the number, seven in ten Americans say they favor removing troops by April. Also 62% say they would like to see that there was mistake to go to Iraq in the first place. What are you hearing? Well, I'm hearing more and more of this sort of thing down here in Texas, which has been what President Bush's base is obviously, and even conservatives are saying privately more and more of us publicly that this war is a catastrophe and it's going to be a catastrophe for the GOP in 2008. I think that the war is at this point unwinnable and as long as the president refuses to consider any other option rather than just staying with the course, it's going to become more and more untenable to stay in Iraq in any way. And I think that you're seeing more and more Republicans saying this openly and many more are saying privately.

Let me be clear about this, were you originally a supporter of the war? I was. I was at National Review in the year, marching up to the war. I was a big supporter of the war, and I was wrong. I foolishly trusted this administration, not only its case for the war, but its competence, and I was badly wrong. And I don't see the reason that we should continue to exacerbate that error by continuing to stay on an Iraq, following a failed policy in a war that we cannot win. Rick Abbasu, you were originally against this war, and you remained so, but you were working in Iowa and Des Moines where there is so much discussion going on right now among candidates today, I guess you saw, had visits both from both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama talking about this. Have you seen an ever-load evolution in the discussion about the war? I think I've seen a real discernible shift actually in the way that people are feeling about it. When I first started writing against the war, which was before the war even started, I would say that my male ran about seven to three in favor of the war.

And I think it's now flipped completely. I think it's now something like seven against and three in support, which is very interesting because it sort of mirrors the national numbers that you just showed. Iowa tends to be a very trusting, very law-abiding state, where people really put their faith in government and believe that government is acting responsibly. Once you elect someone, you entrust them to make the decisions, and I think that Iowans are very afraid of terrorism, and initially thought we should get behind this war effort because it was fighting terrorism. I see increasing frustration on the part of ordinary Iowans, and particularly troop families who really feel that we're not getting anywhere, that it's time to get out, that it's dragging on endlessly, that troops are being redeployed two and three times, that this was never part of the bargain. And as far as the presidential candidates go, the Democrats are just drawing huge crowds. And I think the number one issue that people are concerned with is actually this question

of the war, any time, whether it's Barack Obama or John Edwards or Hillary Clinton, when they say it's time to get out of Iraq, you should see the kind of responses and standing ovation that they get. People really, really want to hear that point of view articulated. Ruben Naperate, you are in San Diego, where there is a big military presence. How has the discussion evolved there? Well, go ahead. It's interesting. You would think there might be a bubble here in San Diego with regard to the military talk about, in the sense that there's a lot of loyalty or troops and what the troops try to do there. But I think what you see is that loyalty is limited to the troops. It's certainly not directed at the administration or these policies anymore. Have you seen that in San Diego? You see a lot of anxiety and a lot of frustration about what's not being accomplished. Have you seen that change since you've been there? I think there has been a change, but I think this sense that the public has had of discontent with the war actually goes back a while. This isn't really a headline for today.

It's been around. It's been this way for about a year or so. What strikes me is that Bush just doesn't seem to care about this, no matter what Congress is saying, no matter what the public is saying, he's steadfast, he's going to do it. He's going to stay in there as long as he thinks we need to stay there.