another poll has come out showing iraqis overwhelmingly want american forces to leave their country. every single poll that asked the question over the last two years has found essentially the same thing. and in both of the iraqi national elections, the winners were parties that included a pullout of american forces on their official platform (and in each case the promise was quickly ignored as soon as the iraqi politicians came to power and depended on those forces for their own personal security).
so the question isn't, as atrios asks, "why don't we go?" it's "will anyone pay more attention to this poll than any of the previous polls?"
the answer is pretty clearly "no." bloggers will post about it, maybe there will be a couple of articles about it in the newspaper, but then it will go away. bush will continue to pretend that the iraqi government has some kind of popular mandate and that the u.s. forces are there at the invitation of the iraqis.
but that doesn't change the underlying sentiment behind the poll. both the american public and the iraqi public solidly want a u.s. pullout from iraq. that means that a pullout is going to happen. it's just a matter of when and how much of a mess we make of things in the meantime. on something this major, the leaders of iraq and the u.s. ignore the will of the people at their own peril.
