Hoover's Hanson claimed U.S. troops see their mission in Iraq; poll shows otherwise
SUMMARY: In a Wall Street Journal commentary, Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson argued that U.S. troops in Iraq "hardly" regard their mission as "lost without a plan." However, a recent poll conducted face-to-face with soldiers serving in Iraq found that, when asked, 42 percent of respondents indicated a less than clear understanding of their mission in Iraq.
In a March 1 commentary in The Wall Street Journal, Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution, argued that U.S. troops in Iraq "hardly" regard their mission as "lost without a plan," despite the statements to the contrary by opponents of the war. However a recent poll conducted by Zogby International and the Center for Peace and Global Studies at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York -- the first of its kind, conducted face-to-face with soldiers serving in Iraq, reportedly without the permission of the Pentagon -- found that, when asked whether their mission was "clear in their minds," 42 percent responded that their mission in Iraq was either somewhat or very unclear to them, that they had no understanding of it at all, or that they were not sure. In addition, 28 percent of the respondents said they felt the U.S. should leave Iraq immediately, while 70 percent of troops, 89 percent of reservists, and 82 percent of National Guardsmen indicated that the U.S. should leave within a year.
From Hanson's commentary in the March 1 edition of The Wall Street Journal:
If many are determined to see the Iraqi war as lost without a plan, it hardly seems so to 130,000 U.S. soldiers still over there. They explain to visitors that they have always had a design: defeat the Islamic terrorists; train a competent Iraqi military; and provide requisite time for a democratic Iraqi government to garner public support away from the Islamists.
We point fingers at each other; soldiers under fire point to their achievements: Largely because they fight jihadists over there, there has not been another 9/11 here. Because Saddam is gone, reform is not just confined to Iraq, but taking hold in Lebanon, Egypt and the Gulf. We hear the military is nearly ruined after conducting two wars and staying on to birth two democracies; its soldiers feel that they are more experienced and lethal, and on the verge of pulling off the nearly impossible: offering a people terrorized from nightmarish oppression something other than the false choice of dictatorship or theocracy -- and making the U.S. safer for the effort.
...our troops are undermining themselves, according to the right-wing rhetoric hurled at Murtha and others. Maybe if we send our troops some of those yellow "Support the Troops" magnets they'll stop undermining our troops and emboldening the enemy.
This is an interesting and sad little gem from the troop poll.
"Almost 90% think war is retaliation for Saddam’s role in 9/11, most don’t blame Iraqi public for insurgent attacks "
I wonder where they got that idea.
Could it be... SATAN? I mean, Cheney.
such as Sheer Insanity's, they always talk about the fact that "we have Fox News on all the time."
This Zogby Poll showed 85% of those surveyed said the U.S. mission is mainly "to retaliate for Saddam's role in the 9-11 attacks." Another 77% said they also believe the main or a major reason for the war was "to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq."
Does anyone else see the relationship here?
...claiming to speak for the troops.
Where do these guys get off telling us what the troops think about anything? Has Hanson been over to Iraq?
How would anyone associated with the Walls Street Journal have any idea what troops in the field are thinking? Reporters and so called journalists usually talk to the officers and lifers to "read the pulse of the troops". There is no way that the average PFC has any input with these polls. Whenever you see average Joe's or Josephine's on camera, it's staged and rehearsed. For one thing, they have no idea who is asking them questions. They know if they say the wrong thing, to the wrong person, there could be repercussions for them. Also, they know that a soldier is not allowed to have an opinion on a political matter. So all of this is just utter nonsense. The Wall Street Journal should stick to business reporting and let the politicians sell their own war. We aren't buying this war anymore.
I get to read quite a few of Mr. Hanson's commentaries in the SF Chronicle which they seem to publish on a regular basis and I can tell you if you want to read what the current neo-con fantasy is just read Victor Davis Hanson. Most of his writing has almost nothing to do with what is really going on, it is almost like wishful thinking disguised as sober analysis.