:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 12.13.2006 ::
:: "Support for War Dives as Bush Seeks New Iraq Plan" ::
Don Gonyea
NPR
The White House on Tuesday pushed back until January a major policy address from President Bush on the war in Iraq. The delay comes as several major national polls on the war, all of which became public Tuesday, show plummeting public support.
The president's speech had been promised before Christmas; the delay until next month comes as Mr. Bush continues to debrief policy experts from inside and outside his administration and weigh his options on a new U.S. strategy for Iraq. But one consideration could have been the combined weight of the polls, which offered numbers sure to be disturbing to the president and his advisers.
All the polls found that backing for the war -- already weak enough to hurt Republican candidates in the November midterm elections -- continues to decline. They also found that the general public wants the president to pay heed to key recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, a 10-member bipartisan panel commissioned by Congress. Among its 79 recommendations, the group urged the Bush administration to begin direct talks with Iran and Syria and to set a goal of withdrawing most U.S. ground troops over the next 15 months.
This week, the president has been holding a series of high-profile meetings behind closed doors at the Pentagon and State Department, as well as with prominent Iraqi politicians. The White House has said the president is seeking a new approach that might stem the tide of sectarian violence in Iraq. But the president and his spokespersons have said these meetings are not about the ISG report or its specific recommendations.
The White House's resistance to the report reflects the attitude of conservatives generally, who have denounced the report as a defeatist. But the more general public is clearly dissatisfied with the situation in Iraq and interested in policy alternatives.
The CBS poll, based on interviews conducted Dec. 8-10, shows that 21 percent of Americans approve of the way President Bush is handling the situation in Iraq. Further, the polls shows that 75 percent disapprove. (A scant 4 percent is undecided on this point.)
The poll also shows that 70 percent are "uneasy" about the president's "ability to make the right decisions about the war in Iraq." A majority also believe, according to the CBS survey, that it was wrong to take military action against Iraq and that the United States should have stayed out.
Other polls tell a similar story.
Read more here.
posted by me
:: 9:58:00 PM [+] ::
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