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Daffodils up, optimism down


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Graph from today’s NY Times showing steep decline in US optimism on Iraq. Click image to see it bigger.

I just wanted to share this graphic from a story by David D. Kirkpatrick and Adam Nagourney in today’s NY Times.

The Kirkpatrick/Nagourney story uses anecdotal evidence to indicate people are changing their minds on the Iraq war. (This is not news, but the numbers in the chart are what’s new.)

The article gives the last word to John Warner, a Virginia Senator and not particularly dovish:

“At the Capitol recently, Senator John W. Warner, a Virginia Republican who was the secretary of the Navy during part of the Vietnam War, was introduced to a visiting Iraqi. Mr. Warner proceeded to lecture her about the need for Iraqis to form a new government, and fast.

“The American people have a mind of their own,” he told her, recalling how he watched during the Vietnam War as public opinion turned against the conflict — and inevitably Congress followed. In a later conversation, Mr. Warner said that such a moment had not been reached yet, but he warned that he sensed a “certain degree of impatience” in the country and around the world.”

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