Hmmmm, Nice. You think a NY Times/CBS "poll" represents public opinion. Quick, please tell me how many Dems versus Reps they polled.

How convenient that you leave out the recent CNN, Gallup & Rasmussen polls that show the President's job approval moving to 42% and the generic Dem vs Rep generic ballot falling to single digits - almost even in the Gallup poll. All because of the recent emphasis on terror.

I'll ask again: Do you know what the Rep vs Dem vs Ind breakdown was in the NY Times poll - A poll which usually undersamples Reps by 10 - 15 points. Rely on the NY Times/CBS, clearly with an anti-Bush agenda, at your peril.

Keep wishing & hoping in that cocoon.

Creating hope?!?! WTF? They went to war and destroyed a country to create "hope". What is that about... faith-based foreign policy? Great. I'm reminded of previous faith-based foreign policies that took place around the middle ages :P

I struggle, really struggle with the reality portrayed in the main stream American media. When the UN’s Han’s Blix said before the war in reference to WMD that, "One must not jump to the conclusion that they exist. However, that possibility is not excluded", he clearly meant that there was absolutely no reason to assume there were any WMD at all, because no evidence of WMD had been found—hence this idea of the smoking gun, but he was willing to accept there was a possibility that they might exist. To determine whether this was in fact the case demanded more time for inspection. The Bush administration’s attitude is perhaps best summarized in the following quote given by Bush right before the US invaded:

"Intelligence gathered by this government and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised . . . The danger is clear: using chemical, biological or, one day nuclear weapons, obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country or any other."

Here there can be no room for doubt. The President states explicitly that not only do these weapons exist but that they “will” be used against us or our allies. Why a lot of Americans believe there were WMD is because the News Media has failed to present the FACTS. The entire “SHOW” is and has been a very clear cut case of pure propaganda, pure spin, pure Pravda BS from the start, and of the exact same kind we find during Vietnam until Newscasters like Walter Cronkite broke ranks and wouldn’t play puppet theater any more and spoke from the heart in disgust and according to the hard data. The entire world knows that there is no connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 and the entire world was rather confident that no significant stock of WMD would be found given the testimony of Colin Powell. When Powell gave his speech and presented the American case in the UN it was clear at that instant that most of what he said was obviously wrong. That was the real state of “intelligence” out in the real world at the time of his speech. Why this is not clear to the American people is because the smoke screen of BS, and the belligerent tone used by high standing officials—people of authority, the experts and by the entire administration in collusion with the mass media that stated what was desired and ordered by the highest hold. If a single member of the Bush administration were to be interviewed on TV in Europe by a panel, who were given the green light to play hard ball with the facts, no matter who the Bush administration used as their mouthpiece, he or she would look like absolute idiots—stuttering morons hammered into the dirt on each attempt to lie if they even remotely attempted to defend the “pre-war” context that American leadership used on its own people (on us). Yet in spite of this media collusion it is indeed a good sign if 50% think its BS. I mean we have to remember that we live in a country that still demands that the Warren Commission stand as the official version of the JFK assassination or the lie surrounding the Gulf of Tonkin incident that suckered us into Vietnam. Truth is a rather absurd concept given these historical events and the consequences they embody for our nation. Yet we must demand the truth and hold those who lie accountable—that would set precedence and it is this that seems to be missing. What was really positive is a speech given by Al Gore back in January ON THE LIMITS OF EXECUTIVE POWER. It was clearly one of the most important speeches given by a major politician in the US in the last six years. Yet it demands that people act on it, just as the ACLU is acting on illegal wire tapping and needs every American who breaths to join their cause (which is our cause) against this blatant abuse of power.

Talk about a flip-flop.. which one is it George?

Also doesn't this man realize how many many many many of us remember his positive assertions of WMDs as the main reason for the invasion of Iraq back in 2001? OF COURSE WE DO!!!!!! Bush & Co. are seriously insulting the intelligence of the people of this country.

US presence in Iraq fuels the insurgency. At this point, we are the enemy. The Iraqis tolerate al Quaeda in Iraq because they share a common enemy, the US. Once the US redeploys out of Iraq, al Quaeda members will not be welcome in Iraq. Why would they want to stay there anyway? The infrastructure is largely destroyed. They are only tolerated by virtue of a common enemy. I doubt that al Quaeda will follow the example of Hezbollah and help to rebuild Iraq although that would create goodwill with the Iraqis. Then there is the environmental poisoning by depleted uranium that makes at least southern Iraq inhospitable. Afghanistan or Pakistan is a much more likely destination for al Quaeda fighters.

This administration says we are at war therefore there are all kinds of civil rights that can no need be adhered to.... Geneva Conventions, etc. no longer apply because we are not fighting a conventional army. If they are serious about conducting a war that will last 10, 20, maybe 30 years, then we have to make concessions to protect enough civil rights to make a long term "war" palatable.

That's the other thing, the name. We need to stop calling this a "war". The US uses that word way too often anyway. Why call it anything? Why not accept this war on terror and not have to bring it up all the time? Its just a political tool at this point anyway and a sign of our international immaturity.

Ok, our sovereignty was violated on 9/11, regardless of whether our government was complicit or not, and we understandably over-reacted as a country, not having experienced anything like that before. Now we need to get over ourselves and grow up, accept the fact that we, like everyone else, is vulnerable to attack and accept it as a fact of life.

Accepting the fact that we piss off people in the world enough to make them want to attack us means that we don't need to blow fear up out of proportion in order to prove a point. We need to adjust our attitude and adapt. Accept the fact that the US may not be God's gift to humanity the way many of our leaders seem to think it is.

The US has created the current situation by its own long-standing foreign policies thoughout the globe which are largly based on ignorance and greed. As a nation, we don't need to be so insecure as to want to control everything. The fall of the US empire will come from within, not from without. We are well on our way to financial ruin already with all the money we've borrowed to maintain our present course. And we've got noone to blame but ourselves. George Bush and his administration didn't create this problem but he and they are helping to accelerate our nation's demise, whether they realize it or not.

If I were George Bush, and I thank my lucky stars that I am not, I'd be more concerned about my destination in the afterlife as a result of all the suffering I'm responsible for than about how much wealth I can accumulate for my friends and family. He may not find the same comfy, agreeable audience there as he's used to here. Will you, George?

were you really wainting for a connection between all decitions?

There is no doubt that it was Bush, not middle easterners, who initiated, orchestrated, and saw 9/11 carried out so he could start something in the middle east. He has lied about everything surfacing despite his regime operating under a shroud of secrecy all the time when confronted with the truth. It is not a war in Iraq it is an occupation of Iraq; seizing power there as he did here. Bush's approval rating and credibility with Americans has almost reached the zero point as polls do evidence regardless of the whimperings of republicans in denial. For this occupation in Iraq at a cost of eight billion dollars a month to us in the United States for the next 20-30 years is simply not sustainable, sensible, or acceptable for Americans who are suffering lack in almost every area of life due to the waste of transferring all of the funding from necessary services to Americans sent to kill people in middle eastern countries. It does not matter what George W. Bush wants, it is what we, the people, in America want and need. This is a bunch of criminals who are running the show here and they need to be impeached and then prosecuted for all the many crimes they have been committing for six year. Get them out now.

I do not mean to be disrespectful with the common sense the American people have shown in choosing Mr. Bush not only once but twice, but I do not think I would be very willing for the world to see that there are still a great many people that support your president. The fact that this man is a lier, manipulator, accomplice in war crimes is, I suppose, a small detail for the "patriots." Yeah, right, show the CNN poll and all the others that prove how easy it is to manipulate and brainwash the American public. In the end, most will keep on parroting that Syria, Iran, and North Korea belong to the axis of evil and that Iraq represents the struggle for freedom and that...Think critically. Fox, CNN, etc are not the Bible nor is Cheney a prophet.

What is scary is that a significant proportion of Americans still don't understand the total disaster that the Bush response to 9/11 has been. We are manufacturing more enemies per square minute and distressing our foreign supporters faster than we can manage. We are destroying the American military. We are doing almost nothing sensible to eliminate terrorists and terrorism in large part because we do not understand that we are dealing with a clan oriented enemy which is really a tiny portion of a tribe-oriented people, most of whom just want to live and let live, but are afraid of and respect and support the 'crazies' as true believers. To win we have to pursue the 'crazies' mercilessly and convince the majority that it is unprofitable to support them. This is not done by attacking countries that, in fact, the 'crazies' want to overthrow. Attacking Afganistan was stupid; attacking Iraq was absolutely insane. We are making an intra-arab fight into a religous war. We are uniting Muslims into supporting the 'crazies' because we are attacking broad populations of Muslims. We may have gone beyond the point of being able to really solve these issues.

The US occupation of Iraq, combined with its support of Israel's bombing of Palestinian civlian population and infrastructure, has brought together an historically factional Muslim population into a united front. Cheney and Bush created the link and are now transposing reality. Bush's often incoherent press conference revealed a disturbing man not in control of his cabinet, what to speak of the military. The best thing that could happen at this point would be a military coup ousting Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld. In the interim, Americans will not tolerate another fraudulent election in November. So far, they have exhibited considerable restraint, while the remainder have shown complete indifference. Expect the tough-talking rhetoric to be ratcheted up several levels, including deja vu falsification of the Iranian threat, in the run up to November. With the failure of Israel's military to weaken Hezbollah and draw Syria into the war, and the public's failure to believe the seriousness of Britain's terror plot(as evinced by the media's seizing upon the Ramsey case), the Bush administration will undoubtedly resort to an escalation of events.