The anti-war majority, Glenn Reynolds, and the dishonest tactics of the pro-war right

By: Glenn Greenwald on Saturday, July 29th, 2006 at 4:41 PM - PDT

For almost two years now, polls have continuously shown (.pdf) that a solid majority of Americans opposes the war in Iraq — the signature policy of the Bush administration and its followers — and believes it was a mistake. But a new analysis of Gallup poll data (to which John refers below) reveals that opposition to the war isn’t just substantial, but is greater than it was for the Korean War, and roughly equal to the opposition Americans expressed towards the Vietnam War even as late as 1970:

An analysis released today by Frank Newport, director of The Gallup Poll, shows that current public wishes for U.S. policy in the Iraq war eerily echo attitudes about the Vietnam war in 1970.

The most recent Gallup poll this month found that 52% of adult Americans want to see all U.S. troops out of Iraq within a year, with 19% advocating immediate withdrawal. In the summer of 1970, Gallup found that 48% wanted a pullout within a year, with 23% embracing the “immediate” option. Just 7% want to send more troops now, vs. 10% then.

At present, 56% call the decision to invade Iraq a “mistake,” with 41% disagreeing. Again this echoes the view of the Vietnam war in 1970, when that exact same number, 56%, in May 1970 called it a mistake in a Gallup poll.

Polling data such as this conclusively demonstrates — in a way that even the national media can no longer ignore — just how dishonest and corrupt has been the favorite tactic of pro-war Bush followers: namely, to depict their pro-war views as "mainstream," while even more loudly characterizing truly mainstream anti-war views as being fringe, radical and anti-American.