The Baghdad Surge: Increasingly Unpopular With Elite Opinion Makers

In an unsigned editorial about some election that Senator John McCain would like to run in in 2008, the Projo editorial board rather casually throws out this sentence…

[McCain] has backed the “surge” of troops into Baghdad even as most Americans are increasingly skeptical about it.

It is unclear how the editorial board knows that the surge is becoming “increasingly” unpopular. According to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll, support for the surge has grown since it was announced by President Bush, though support is still not the majority position…

Sixty-three percent of people surveyed oppose Bush's decision to send more troops, although support for the president's plan has risen in the past few weeks from 26 percent to 35 percent, according to an AP-Ipsos poll.

Perhaps if the Projo subscribed to the AP, they would be able to keep their information more up to date. Oh, wait…

Also, we shouldn’t forget to consider the opinion of Baghdad residents when trying to determine the overall popularity of the surge. This is from Mohammed Fadhil, reporting for Pajamas Media (h/t Mickey Kaus)…

Al-Sabah reports that yesterday alone 327 families returned home and that the scene of vans loaded with furniture of refugees leaving Baghdad is no more. There were times when the average was around 20 a day. The 327 figure brought the total to more than 500 families across Baghdad.

Al-Hurra TV aired a report on the story and interviewed some of the returning Baghdadis, one man said “those who returned earlier and saw the change in the situation called us and encouraged us to return, and I too will encourage the rest to come back”. The report showed those families asking the army to stay and not abandon their neighborhood, and showed the officer in charge giving his number to the locals so that they can contact him directly in case of emergency.

I suspect the surge is popular with at least the 500 families mentioned above.