A BBC World Services survey of twenty two countries indicates they believe the United States should withdraw from Iraq within a year. How thoughtful of the BBC to provide this revealing sentiment of the world just as Congress begins to grapple with the burgeoning success in Iraq.
Most people across the world think American troops should withdraw from Iraq within a year, according to a BBC poll published today.The BBC World Service survey, released just before Congress receives a landmark report on George Bush's "surge", underlined the unpopularity of the president's Iraq policy.
In the poll, 39% of people in 22 countries said troops should leave now, and 28% backed a gradual withdrawal. Only 23% wanted them to stay until Iraq is safe.
[...]
That's 67% of the world wants the United States out of Iraq, sooner the better. That settles it for me. We should just get out. Or, maybe not.
However, that's more favorable than the (just my SWAG) 90% of elected democratics who want us out of Iraq immediately or within one year. We're not listening to those fools either.
The leaders of the US, Australia and Britain have all in recent days said troops must stay until the country is safe. All three countries say they have a commitment to the Iraqi people to remain there until local forces can ensure security. But Doug Miller of Globescan, which carried out the research for the BBC, said the results showed "the weight of global public opinion" was against them.
The weight of public opinion being against our continued presence in Iraq is not surprising. Our media has been telling us since March 2003 the world was against our presence in Iraq. This isn't news.
But just where does the bulk of this opposition come from?
Muslim countries including Indonesia (65%), Turkey (64%) and Egypt (58%) were among those most in favour of immediate withdrawal.
Curious, three heavily Muslim countries want our immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Three countries doing the fighting, training and rebuilding in Iraq have a slightly less strong opinion on immediate withdrawal.
But this was much less popular in Australia (22%), the US (24%) and the UK (27%), the countries with the most troops in Iraq.
The world speaks. I jeer.
C-C-G Adds: Just imagine the howling we'd hear if we pulled out of Iraq and the predicted bloodbath occurred. The US is in the unenviable position of being damned if we do and damned if we don't.
