Discontent With Iraq War Growing
This column was written by CBS News Early Show Co-Anchor Harry Smith.
When Republican Lindsay Graham, the particularly straight shooting senator from South Carolina, says in front of a senate committee on Capitol Hill that folks in his state are beginning to question the war in Iraq, that means the Administration has a problem.
Support for the war has been steadily eroding as we have reported here for some time. Sen. Joseph Lieberman said, "I fear American public opinion is tipping away from this effort." In response, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "I have a feeling they're getting pushed."
By whom, I wonder.
The daily bloodshed and carnage that has befallen the Iraqi people is not the media's fault. Nor is an American death toll that has now reached past 1700.
The roots of American discontent on this issue go back two and a half years. I'm guessing folks who had some doubts about the war were more than willing to give the Bush Administration the benefit of the doubt. We had been attacked and surely there must be a response. Americans would rather trust their government than not, and I'm thinking folks said, "Fire away."
We were promised dancing Iraqis and a war that would pay for itself. Well, the Pandora's Box that opened there in Mesopotamia has turned into a horror show of suicide bombers and savage Saddam loyalists. The vice president says the insurgency is in it final throes, the generals say the insurgency is as strong as it was six months ago. Americans don't want pie in the sky promises. Just the truth.
Harry's daily commentary can be heard on manyCBS Radio News affiliates across the country.
By Harry Smith