The reality is vastly different. A secret poll commissioned by the U.K. Ministry of Defence and leaked to the British press, shows that 82 percent are “strongly opposed” to the presence of foreign troops and 45 percent support attacks on them. Almost three-quarters of Iraqis, 72 percent, have “no confidence” in the foreign forces, and fewer than one per cent (!) think that continued military involvement by the United States and her allies is helping to improve security in their country. The nationwide survey reveals a staggering depth of anti-Western feeling that is not confined to any single region of Iraq. Even in the Shiite south, in Maysan province, 65 percent believe that attacks on foreign forces are justified. The poll’s results would appear suspect had they come from another source. They suggests that the battle to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people is already lost. As the Tory shadow defense minister commented, “the coalition is now part of the problem and not the solution.”

This being so, the question is how to end the war. That it can never be “won” in Mr. Bush’s sense (“We will never back down, we will never give in, we will never accept anything less than complete victory”) is obvious, but the President and his team appear alarmingly devoid of fresh or useful ideas. This was further confirmed in Pennsylvania last Friday by his near-verbatim repetition of a long (and flawed) discourse on terrorism that was initially read before the National Ewndowment for Democracy on October 6. ~Srdja Trifkovic

Read the the entire article to find Dr. Trifkovic’s much more realistic and sensible alternative.