That's the question Hugh Hewitt asks in his blog post at Townhall.com.
The question stems from results of this poll by Fox News.
Question: Do you personally want the Iraq plan President Bush announced last week to succeed?
Results:
Overall: 63% Yes 22% No 15% Don’t Know
Democrats: 51% Yes 34% No 15% Don’t Know
Republicans: 79% Yes 11% No 10% Don’t Know
Independents 63% Yes 19% No 17% Don’t Know
Those results are stunning. As Hewitt says:
Even though we have some 150,000 troops in harm’s way and we universally profess to "support the troops," over 1/3 of our society either wants them to fail or doesn’t know if they want them to succeed. Even more chilling are the results regarding our currently dominant political party. 49% of Democrats either want us to lose in Iraq or "don’t know" if they want us to succeed.
I would love to hear why losing in Iraq would be in the national interest. And I would love to hear the humanitarian justification for leaving Baghdad’s civilians to the tender mercies of the murderous militias and terrorists that stalk that city.
I've never taken the "don't know" answer as honest on its face. Usually people who answer a poll with "don't know" don't really want to answer the question (or answer it honestly). What it tells me is that 15% of people saying "don't know" really mean that no, they don't want the plan to succeed. And keep in mind that virtually half of all Democrats in the poll admitted they want the policy to fail.
Can we question their patriotism yet?
Cross-posted at Common Sense Political Thought.
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