(Snip) In this month's Post-ABC News survey, when 52 percent of those polled said that the war in Iraq was not contributing to American security and 49 percent said they disapproved of President Bush's handling of the global war on terrorism
(Snip) the White House is losing that argument with the American public and does not seem to understand why.
It is an argument that increasingly centers on the very character of the American involvement in those conflicts, not only on the narrower cost-benefit ratio of U.S. casualties there.
(Snip) The failure to discover weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has forced the administration to emphasize the moral reasons that underlie the case for regime change, a cause I argued for through four successive administrations. But it is American morality -- not Saddam Hussein's demonstrated lack thereof -- that is becoming a defining issue now, however unfair that may seem.
From the disclosures about prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib to the apparent falsification of the circumstances of the friendly-fire death of former pro football player Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, there has been a lack of serious accountability for lies, mistakes and worse in the military and civilian chains of command.
(Snip) Patience in times of hardship and danger has to be earned by leadership, by candor and by demonstrated accountability and responsibility at the top. A poll may be nothing more than a snapshot, but it can show us things about ourselves we need to see.
Poll: Majority Says War in Iraq a Mistake
By The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Friday, June 24, 2005; 2:47 PM
-- Just over half of Americans, 53 percent, now say the war in Iraq was a mistake _ the highest percentage to say that in AP-Ipsos polling since December 2003, when two-thirds said the war in Iraq was the right thing to do.
The poll taken earlier this week also found that almost six in 10 disapprove of the Bush administration's conduct of the war
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