The Daily Background

I’ve been meaning to mention this for a few days now but haven’t gotten to it. On September 28th, CNN came out with an overlooked poll that concluded that a majority of Americans believe that Iraq is in civil war right now. Frankly I was not so much surprised that a majority of Americans believe it’s a civil war (I believe it’s a civil war, and have said this several times), but rather that it’s such an overwhelming majority who believe it’s a civil war:

Iraq, particularly its capital, Baghdad, has endured months of Sunni-Shiite sectarian killings, and debate has simmered over whether the country has or has not entered into a full-blown or low-grade civil war.

Asked whether Iraq is “currently engaged in a civil war,” 65 percent of the poll’s respondents said “yes,” and 29 percent answered “no.” By comparison, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll in April found 56 percent of the respondents believed Iraq was in a civil war, while 33 percent disagreed.

In addition, the poll found that only 35% of Americans have a favorable view of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, while 50% have an unfavorable view of him.

Filed under: Iraq Related, Z-TDB Blog