National Review editor Rich Lowry claims in his column yesterday that the majority of Americans oppose withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq:
Politically, Iraq is a loser for Republicans, except for the bright spot that the American public is not yet ready to quit. A CNN poll in August found that 69 percent of Americans oppose withdrawing American troops by the end of the year, and 66 percent believe that we can win the war there.
But Lowry is manipulating the poll numbers to prove his point. The CNN poll from Aug. 2-3, to which Lowry is referring, found that just 34 percent of Americans oppose U.S. troop withdrawal. Sixty-one percent support it. Of that 61 percent, twenty-six percent support full troop withdrawal and another 35 percent support some redeployment:
There are just three more months left in the year. No prominent politician is advocating complete redeployment by the end of 2006. Another recent CNN poll shows that 57 percent of the public supports a timetable for withdrawal.
(HT: Reader Ken A.)
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