A poll recently conducted -- this is a British poll reported in the Washington Times -- over 80 percent of Iraqis are strongly opposed to the presence of coalition forces and about 45 percent of Iraqi population believe attacks against American troops are justified. - Rep. John Murtha (D - Pa.), November 17, 2005

------------

There's other evidence of the United States' increasing unpopularity: Two-thirds now oppose the presence of U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, 14 points higher than in February 2004. Nearly six in 10 disapprove of how the United States has operated in Iraq since the war, and most ofthem disapprove strongly. And nearly half of Iraqis would like to see U.S. forces leave soon. Specifically, 26 percent of Iraqis say U.S. and other coalition forces should "leave now" and another 19 percent say they should go after the
government chosen in this week's election takes office; that adds to 45 percent. Roughly the other half says coalition forces should remain until security is restored (31 percent), until Iraqi security forces can operate independently (16 percent), or longer (5 percent). - ABC News Poll, December 13, 2005

-------------

There's a big difference between over 80 percent strongly oppose and 67 percent oppose at any level. Even if you assume that two-thirds of those in the ABC poll that oppose us do so strongly, that's about half the number reported in the Murtha poll. That's not to mention that a majority of Iraqis are opposed to his plan to immediately redeploy (his own words).

The real point here is not to show that John Murtha was overstating the need for us to leave immediately, but simply to show that we shouldn't be making policy based on polls which can be biased either way based on any number of factors. Being in Iraq is either the right thing to
do or the wrong thing to do.

That being said, I have more confidence in the ABC Poll than in the poll Murtha referred to which was a "secret poll" by a an "Iraqi university research team".