46% of all adults is not confident that U.S. policies in Iraq will be successful.

50% favors the U.S. handing over control of Iraq to the United Nations.

54% thinks that most people in Iraq see the U.S. troops there more as occupiers than as liberators.

By 51% now gives President Bush negative rating on his handling of Iraq over the last several months.

Those who believe that the level of U.S. casualties in Iraq is unacceptable have been rising slowly. In this new survey they are tied (47% to 47%) with those who think that the level of U.S. casualties is unfortunate but acceptable.

This survey by Harris Interactive was conducted online with a nationwide sample of 2,306 adults surveyed between September 16 and 23, 2003.

*from Newsweek, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. Sept. 25-26, 2003. N=1,004 adults nationwide. MoE � 3.;

"Now thinking about the situation in Iraq: Do you think the amount of money the United States is spending for operations in postwar Iraq is too high, too low, or about right?"
56%-Too High
31%-About Right
"As far as the number of U.S. military personnel now in Iraq, do you think the United States should send more troops to Iraq, keep the same amount of troops, or reduce their number and begin bringing troops home?"
Send More-14%
Keep Same-29%
Reduce-49%

*CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll. Sept. 19-21, 2003. N=1,003 adults nationwide. MoE � 3.

"Now, we'd like to ask you some questions about Iraq. First, all in all, do you think the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over, or not?"
Worth it-50%(down from 58% a week ago)
Not Worth it-48%(up from 40% a week ago)

*CBS News Poll. Sept. 15-16, 2003. N=675 adults nationwide. MoE � 4.

"So far, do you think the Bush Administration has developed a clear plan for rebuilding Iraq, or hasn't it developed one yet?"

Does have plan-22%
Does Not-64%

Do you think the result of the war with Iraq was worth the loss of American life and other costs of attacking Iraq, or not?"

Worth it-43%
Not worth it-47%

-i could go on and on. as for you soldier's letter, i found the same letter on the Free Republic website, which in its own words refers to itself as "A Conservative New Forum", so its highly unlikely that Frontline Voices would print any letters from servicemen unhappy with their sitauation(as LilAmy has said before, they arent even allowed to vocalize their discontent anyway). and if W really cared about these troops, hed not have sent them over at all(notice he hasnt mentioned afghanistan in months), not have cut their medical benefits and pay, and not antagonized their enemy with comments like "Bring it on". not that he will ever or has ever been a "Frontline Voice".

but thats fine; you just keeping reading the selectively picked letters on FrontlineVoices. im sure it wont help in situations like at Fort Stewart, home base for the Third Infantry Division, most of whose personnel has been deployed in the Persian Gulf for nearly a year, where �Frustrations became so bad that a colonel, meeting with 800 seething spouses, most of them wives, had to be escorted from the session.�(from the NY Times, July 5). Lucia Braxton, director of community services at Fort Stewart, told the Times, �They were crying, cussing, yelling and screaming for their men to come back.�

If you want facts, why don't you ask Lonnie Lewis what Iraq is REALLY like? I'm sure he could tell you better than Peter Jennings or Dan Rather could.
Here, I've even reprinted his address so you can reach him. Talk to him (if you have any measure of guts at all).

"Not only can I cite poll numbers which will show you don't have a prayer against Dubya in 04, but I can also post direct quotes from the leaders of the sociali...uh, democratic party who agree with Dubya 100 percent on the reasons to go to war with Iraq"

whats your point? i know for a fact as lot of dems support W. i also know a lot of repubs that dont(conservativesagainstbush.com, for the 100th time). as for polls showing Dubya's guaranteed winning in 04, im sure you can give conservative think tank numbers all day long about that(did you miss the poll that showed Clark beating W last week as well?).

as for jennings and rather, i cant remember when was the last time i even watched them(ive watched O'Reilly and Hannity more than those guys), let alone quote or link to anything theyve said(if you can find where i have, feel free to point it out to me). once again the neoconservative sterotype of anyone not in their liking is of the old school tree hugger who worships at the alter of Carter and Rather. adapt and change, man. no wonder you guys are losing favor in the polls.

"Would you like to see all those again?"

Editor's Note: This is an open letter from U.S. Army Maj. Eric Rydbom in Iraq to the First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach in Shoreline, Wash. Rydbom is Deputy Division Engineer of the 4th Infantry Division.

It has been a while since I have written to my friends at First Lutheran Church about what's really going on here in Iraq. The news you watch on TV is exaggerated, sensationalized and selective. Good news doesn't sell.

The stuff you don't hear about on CNN?

Let's start with electrical power production in Iraq. The day after the war was declared over, there was nearly 0 power being generated in Iraq. Just 45 days later, in a partnership between the Army, the Iraqi people and some private companies, there are now 3200 megawatts (Mw) of power being produced daily, 1/3 of the total national potential of 8000 Mw. Downed power lines (big stuff, 400 Kilovolt (Kv) and 132 Kv) are being repaired and are about 70 percent complete.

Then there is water purification. In central Iraq between Baghdad and Mosul, home of the 4th Infantry Division, water treatment was spotty at best. The facilities existed, but the controls were never implemented. Simple chemicals like Chlorine for purification and Alum (Aluminum Sulfate) for sediment settling (the Tigris River is about as clear as the Mississippi River) were in very short supply or not used at all. When chlorine was used, it was metered by the scientific method of guessing.

So some people got pool water to drink and some people got water with lots of little things floating around in it. We are slowly but surely solving that. Contracts for repairs to facilities that are only 50 percent or less operational are being let, chemicals are being delivered, although we don't have the metering problem solved yet (...but again, it's only been 45 days).

How about oil and fuel? Well the war was all about oil wasn't it? You bet it was. It was all about oil for the Iraqi people! They have no other income. They produce nothing else. Oil is 95 percent of the Iraqi GNP. For this nation to survive, it must sell oil.

You have to remember that only three months ago, all these things were used by the Saddam regime as weapons against the population to keep them in line. If your town misbehaved, gasoline shipments stopped, LPG pipelines and trucks stopped, water was turned off, power was turned off.

Now, until exports start, every drop of gasoline produced goes to the Iraqi people. Crude oil is being stored and the country is at 75 percent capacity right now. They need to export or stop pumping soon, so thank the U.N. for the delay.

All LPG goes to the Iraqi people everywhere. Water is being purified as best it can be, but at least its running all the time to everyone.

Are we still getting shot at? Yep.

Are American soldiers still dying? Yep, about one a day from my outfit, the 4th Infantry Division, most in accidents, but dead is dead.

If we are doing all this for the Iraqis, why are they shooting at us?

The general Iraqi population isn't shooting at us. There are still bad guys who won't let go of the old regime. They are Ba'ath party members (Read Nazi Party, but not as nice) who have known nothing but and supported nothing but the regime all of their lives. These are the thugs for the regime who caused many to disappear in the night. They have no other skills. At least the Nazis [in Germany] had jobs and a semblance of a national infrastructure that they could go back to after the war, as plumbers, managers, engineers, etc. These people have no skills but terror. They are simply applying their skills ... and we are applying ours.

There is no Christian way to say this, but they must be eliminated and we are doing so with all the efficiency we can muster. Our troops are shot at literally everyday by small arms and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs). We respond. One hundred percent of the time, the Ba''ath party guys come out with the short end of the stick.

The most amazing thing to me is that they don't realize that if they stopped shooting at us, we would focus on fixing things more quickly and then leave back to the land of the Big PX. The more they shoot at us, the longer we will have to stay.

Lastly, all of you please realize that 90 percent of the damage you see on TV was caused by Iraqis, not by us and not by the war. Sure, we took out a few bridges from military necessity, we took out a few power and phone lines to disrupt communications, sure we drilled a few palaces and government headquarters buildings with 2000 lb. laser guided bombs (I work 100 yards from where two hit the Tikrit Palace), [but] he had plenty to spare.

But, any damage you see to schools, hospitals, power generation facilities, refineries, pipelines, was all caused either by the Iraqi Army in its death throes or from much of the Iraqi civilians looting the places.

Could we have prevented it? Nope.

We can and do now, but 45 days ago, the average soldier was fighting for his own survival and trying to get to his objectives as fast as possible. He was lucky to know what town he was in much less be informed enough to know who owned what or have the power to stop 1,000 people from looting and burning a building by himself.
The United States and our allies, especially Great Britain, are doing a very noble thing here. We stuck our necks out on the world's chopping block to free an entire people from the grip of a horrible terror that was beyond belief.

I've already talked the weapons of mass destruction thing to death - bottom line, who cares? This country was one big conventional weapons ammo dump anyway.. We have probably destroyed more weapons and ammo in the last 30 days than the U.S. Army has ever fired in the last 30 years (remember, this is a country the size of Texas), so drop the WMD argument as the reason we came here. If we find it great if we don't, so what?

I'm living in a "guest palace" on a 500-acre palace compound with 20 palaces with like facilities built in half a dozen towns all over Iraq that were built for one man. Drive down the street and out into the countryside five miles away like I have and see all the families of 10 or more, all living in mud huts and herding the two dozen sheep on which their very existence depends ....then tell me why you think we are here.

Respectfully,

ERIC RYDBOM
MAJOR, ENGINEER
Deputy Division Engineer
4th Infantry Division

i think maybe you misunderstand the liberal stance on this whole war thing. success is not a factor in whether or not we believe this war is the right thing to do; no one honestly thought failure was even a possibility. in fact, if anyone actually believed that hussein's regime posed anything even remotely close to a threat, we wouldn't have invaded in the first place (think about that one for a second).

furthermore, many liberals have made legitimate, humanitarian cases for action in iraq for decades (y'know, back when rummy and bush sold weapons to hussein, which he then used to slaughter thousands of kurds with our absentee blessing). i remember reading a nation article about the kurd slaughter just a few years ago. i should back that up with a link or quote, but frankly i'm lazy, and i'm at work with actual work-related things to do, so you'll just have to take my word for it (or not).

see, whether it goes off without a hitch (which is hardly the case) or it is a magnificent disaster (also hardly the case), the action in iraq is fraught with peril from inception to completion, and the real danger is for america.

1. economic nightmare. right here, at home.

2. deception of the american public. there are precedents of orwellian proportion being set right now of just how much the people in charge can get away with. i'd like to say that it started with the disgusting farce of an election, but the truth is it probably started a long time ago (warren commission comes to mind). and we've been taking it. with a smile. no wonder they don't even feel the need to lie *well*.

3. foreign policy is damn near completely discredited. i know, i know, you're thinking "what? you mean we *have* a foreign policy? other than shoot people?"

4. hi, my name is osama bin laden. remember me? still out here.

6. hi, i'm your civil liberties. i seem to be shrinking. what, you didn't notice?

5. nationalism. yes, it is back with a vengeance. and it is the most dangerous thing to this country and its ideals. terrorism, axis of evil, new world order, etc.; these things are nothing compared to the corrosive effect blind allegiance to propoganda has on a nation. for examples, see germany, ussr, khmer rouge. iraq. if you have lost your will to question authority, then you deserve to have authority shit on you. but if you actively repress others' right to question authority, you are not a patriot, you are a nationalist goon.