A March 14 news brief posted on the Fort Collins Coloradoan's website about a rally opposing a Colorado Senate resolution criticizing President Bush's troop escalation in Iraq uncritically reported Fort Collins City Council member Diggs Brown's comment that "[t]he only people who are upset that we're in Iraq are the terrorists who came across the border, the jihadists, and the Sunnis who lost their power." The Coloradoan failed to include a response from supporters of the resolution -- which news reports say include some military families -- or note the fact that recent polls show a majority of Americans oppose the war and Bush's Iraq policy.

From the March 14 news brief “Diggs Brown to speak at Denver rally,” on the Fort Collins Coloradoan's website:

Fort Collins City Council member Diggs Brown, a veteran of the Afghanistan war, will be among those speaking at a Denver rally today to oppose a legislative resolution criticizing the Bush administration policies in Iraq.

Brown, a Special Forces major, will speak during a noontime rally today at the Capitol. “The only people who are upset that we're in Iraq are the terrorists who came across the border, the jihadists, and the Sunnis who lost their power,” Brown told the Associated Press.

In contrast, an Associated Press article published in the Montrose Daily Press on March 14 reported both Brown's criticism and the comments of the mother of an Iraqi soldier, who stated that she “doesn't think debating the resolution will hurt [troop] morale”:

Brown, a Fort Collins city council member, said he thinks the resolution basically says Coloradans have no confidence in the military and their capability to win the war on terror. He thinks the public doesn't hear enough about the good that American forces are accomplishing, adding that most parts of Iraq are now stable.

“The only people who are upset that we're in Iraq are the terrorists who came across the border, the jihadists, and the Sunnis who lost their power,” Brown said.

[Gaye] Lowe-Kaplan, a retired teacher from Wheat Ridge, said her son, now back at his post in Hawaii, can't wait until he is released in July and has given up on a military career after his experience in Iraq. She said she is proud of her son and doesn't think debating the resolution will hurt morale.

The AP also noted that "[t]he resolution says that it's not in the nation's best interest to send more troops to Iraq and that the war has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, hurting efforts to bring peace and democracy to the country." And, unlike the Coloradoan, the AP reported that the resolution “also says Colorado honors the bravery of servicemen and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and will support making sure they have sufficient resources.”

Furthermore, recent polling about the war contradicts Brown's dubious claim that the only people who are “upset” with the Iraq war are “terrorists ... jihadists ... and Sunnis who lost their power” -- polling the Coloradoan failed to note. “Americans' support for President George W. Bush's handling of the war in Iraq continues to erode,” according to a Bloomberg poll conducted March 3-11. The Bloomberg poll also found that “by better than 2-to-1, people gave thumbs down to [Bush's] Iraq policy.” The poll had a margin of error of 2 percentage points. Similarly, in a USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted March 2-4, 59 percent of Americans" think the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq." That poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

As Colorado Media Matters noted, widely reported public opinion polls from February also show that a majority of Americans oppose the planned troop increase and believe the war is “hopeless” or was “a mistake.”