Most Think Iraq Not Worth It

[Nickdfresh]

Poll: Most in U.S. say Iraq war not worthwhile


Tuesday, May 3, 2005 Posted: 11:22 PM EDT (0322 GMT)
According to a recent poll, most Americans do not believe going to war in Iraq was worth it.

WASHINGTON (CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/03/iraq.poll/index.html)) -- A majority of Americans do not believe it was worth going to war in Iraq, according to a national poll released Tuesday.

Fifty-seven percent of those polled said they did not believe it was worth going to war, versus 41 percent who said it was, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 1,006 adults.

That was a drop in support from February, when 48 percent said it was worth going to war and half said it was not.

It's also the highest percentage of respondents who have expressed those feelings and triple the percentage of Americans who said that it was not worth the cost shortly after the war began about two years ago.

The new poll question, asked by telephone on April 29-May 1, had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Asked how things are going for the United States in Iraq, 56 percent said "badly" or "very badly," up from 45 percent in March.

Forty-two percent said "well" or "very well," down from 52 percent in March.

The margin of error for that question was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Americans appeared evenly divided over whether the decision to send U.S. troops to Iraq was a mistake, with 49 percent saying yes and 48 percent saying no. The sampling error was plus or minus 5 points.

On Tuesday, House and Senate conferees agreed to an $82 billion supplemental spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That pushes the total cost of the Bush administration's war on terror to more than $300 billion, according to The Associated Press. (Full story)

In March 2003, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told a House panel that Iraq, with its oil resources, "can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."

Such forecasts proved to be off the mark. Oil revenues have been lower than predicted partly because the industry's infrastructure was in bad shape. Overall reconstruction costs also have been higher than expected.

White House claims that weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq also failed to materialize.

Early Tuesday, the U.S. military found the body of a pilot from one of two missing Marine Corps F/A-18 jets that Navy officials believe collided while flying in operations in Iraq. (Full story)

The number of U.S. troops who have died in the Iraq war stood at 1,585 as of Tuesday, according to the Pentagon.

A poll conducted in February showed that the Iraqi elections January 30 produced a bump in President Bush's approval rating. In that poll, 55 percent of Americans said the Iraq war was not a mistake. (Full story)

Political negotiations since then have delayed the formation of a new government in Iraq.

But on Tuesday, Iraqi politicians were putting the finishing touches on a new Cabinet, with Shiite Arab leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari sworn in as prime minister.

More than 100 Iraqis, most of them security forces and civilians, have died in insurgent attacks since last Thursday, when Iraq's transitional National Assembly approved a partial Cabinet list.

In a prime time news conference last week, Bush said the United States is "making really good progress in Iraq, because the Iraqi people are beginning to see the benefits of a free society."

"A free Iraq in the midst of the Middle East is an important part of spreading peace," he said. (Full story)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
____

[DrMaddVibe]

So?!?

Safer: U.S. Sees Drop in Terrorist Threats

Dana Priest and Spencer Hsu, Washington Post
Monday, May 2, 2005

Reports of credible terrorist threats against the United States are at their lowest level since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to U.S. intelligence officials and federal and state law enforcement authorities.

The intelligence community's daily threat assessment, developed after the terrorist attacks to keep policymakers informed, currently lists, on average, 25 to 50 percent fewer threats against domestic targets than it typically did over the past two years, said one senior counterterrorism official.


A broad cross section of counterterrorism officials believes al Qaeda and like-minded groups, in part frustrated by increased U.S. security measures, are focusing instead on Americans deployed in Iraq, where the groups operate with relative impunity, and on Europe.

Though some are expressing caution and even skepticism, interviews last week with 25 current or recently retired officials also cited progress in counterterrorism operations abroad and a more experienced homeland security apparatus for a general feeling that it is more difficult for terrorists to operate undetected. The officials represent federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies, state and local homeland security departments and the private sector.

"We are breathing easier," said U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer, whose officers guard one of al Qaeda's expressed targets, and who is regularly briefed by the FBI and CIA. "The imminence of a threat seems to have diminished. We're just not as worried as we were a year ago, but we certainly are as vigilant."

"I agree," said John O. Brennan, acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told of Gainer's assessment. "Progress has been made."

Brennan also said the initial post-Sept. 11 belief that there were large numbers of sleeper cells in the United States turned out to be "a lot of hyperbole." Some people believed "there was a terrorist under every rock."

But some intelligence analysts caution that the drop-off in terrorist-related planning, communication and movement could be a tactical pause by al Qaeda and related terrorist groups. No one suggests the threat has gone away.

Brennan and others fear most what they are not hearing or seeing, especially the possibility that al Qaeda has acquired chemical or biological weapons and adapted in ways that have evaded detection. Analysts also say a flood of new terrorists motivated by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq may try to travel here and reverse the relative calm of today's environment, as they are doing in Europe.

But for now, most officials acknowledged a change in perception, for the better. Most of these officials declined to speak on the record, for fear, as one put it, "that something will go boom" and the public will blame them for being complacent.

On Jan. 6, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge signaled the change in threat level during his last roundtable discussion with reporters, weeks before he stepped down. Asked to explain the decline in suspected terrorist activity in the prior months, he responded:

"Your characterization of it as being a significantly different threat environment, based on what we historically have heard, is absolutely correct," Ridge said. "So there certainly is a diminution, reduction in the amount of intelligence, and the decibel level is lower."

Evidence of a lower decibel level is pervasive.

Behind closed doors, the weekly, classified "hot spot" briefings for congressional intelligence committees are consumed less by domestic terrorist threats than they have been, said people who have attended the meetings. "It's not as forefront in people's minds," one such official said. "There's not the same concern as there was a year ago about an imminent threat."

Some federal law enforcement officials say they know of no major counterterrorism cases soon to be made public.

The House Homeland Security Committee voted last week to reopen Reagan National Airport to private aircraft and to eliminate the color-coded warning system that is one of the icons of the post-Sept. 11 era. The number of secure briefings for lawmakers has dropped too, said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee who has been critical of excessive security in Washington. "That in itself is an indication there is less to report."

Life in Washington seems closer to normal, especially after the tightened security before last November's election. The validity of top officials' publicly stated belief that terrorists wanted to attack during the pre-election period is now hotly debated within the counterterrorism community. But the rotating checkpoints around the Capitol have become less disruptive, and a booming real estate market is a concrete symbol that people are not afraid to move to a potential ground zero.

Business sectors also note a change in broader public behavior. Hotel occupancy, room rates and revenue in Washington so far this year are the highest since 2001, the D.C. Convention and Tourism Corp. reported.

Counterterrorism officials said the atmosphere, particularly in the Washington area, also has calmed because they are less jittery and less inclined to warn the public about every vague, unsubstantiated threat. In the past, they feared being accused of missing something.

With 3 1/2 years of experience, their ability to cull serious from baseless threats has matured, officials said.

"People are more hesitant to pull the trigger, and now think, 'Let's wait a day or two' to investigate," said John Rollins, former chief of staff for DHS's intelligence unit and now an analyst at the Congressional Research Service.

The intelligence community now can better identify the "unreliable and bogus threats," said NCTC's Brennan. "We don't have to go into crisis mode. In the past, we had a lot of brush fires developing. Now, we can deal with it with a better filter."

There is also the broad recognition that "the sky can't be falling every day," said one senior Washington law enforcement official.

U.S. officials, including Brennan, also express growing confidence in improved domestic security. They believe improvements in border security, counter-surveillance tactics and information sharing among law enforcement agencies would make it difficult for the Sept. 11, 2001, attack plotters to evade detection today.

Counterterrorism squads have also begun learning how to recruit informants and follow leads that do not necessarily lead to arrests, an official in the field said. "They thought they would be rounding up terrorists every week," said one senior counterterrorism official who helped train such a squad outside Washington. "But they weren't. There was some frustration," but the same officers are now learning intelligence tradecraft, he said.

Police are also honing counterterrorism efforts, working with businesses nationwide to screen for suspicious activity involving the acquisition of certain kinds of materials, vehicles, training and licenses that have figured into terrorist plots.

Public vigilance remains high, at least in major cities, officials said. This winter, for example, FBI agents were called to investigate when workers at a Northern Virginia hospital grew suspicious of two men who asked about nighttime staffing levels, ostensibly because they were considering whether their new doughnut shop should stay open 24 hours.

It turned out the men had, in fact, obtained a new doughnut franchise, two security officials said.

"Could what happened with the 9/11 operators in the pre-event stage happen today and nobody pick up on it? No, I don't think so," said Cathy Lanier, head of special operations for the D.C. Police Department. "If they went through the same surveillance practices, forged documents, they would be picked up somehow. Along the line, there would be red flags, and I would say there is probably a good chance the red flags would have come through the public and not law enforcement or other sources."

Even if the threat has eased, officials throughout the government acknowledge major shortcomings in homeland security. Borders remain porous, chemical plants are poorly protected, the quality of baggage inspection is uneven, and countless other vulnerabilities have not been addressed.

Some officials also express a nagging worry that analysts simply have less information to sift through, or less time to concentrate on it given the bureaucratic transitions in the intelligence community.

"There's been a kind of constant non-action, or non-tension whatever you want to call it," one state homeland security adviser said. "There's not a whole lot of new stuff."

Several officials in urban areas that are considered prime targets, said they worried most about what law enforcement is not detecting. "I'm not so comforted" by the drop in intelligence warnings coming out of Washington, said one senior U.S. intelligence official based elsewhere. "I'm concerned about what is going on under our radar scope. And I'm worried about the radar scope."

Michael A. Mason, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington field office, said that as far as he is concerned, there has been no drop in the threat level.

"The desire to harm Americans is certainly still out there whether that is wrapped around a specific threat or not," Mason said.

D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, who co-chairs the homeland security committee for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, cautions that "complacency can settle in the further we get from 9/11. We tend to think everything is normal. I don't feel that way."

Ramsey said he believes the Homeland Security color code will never go below its current level of yellow, which denotes an "elevated" threat level.

"We will never be at green again," Ramsey said. "Normal was redefined on 9/11. Normal is yellow."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company. Reprinted with permission.

[American Gypsy]

I love the way this with the 'Reduced Terrorist Threat' gets depicted. It's as if no one watched T.V. or read the paper before 9/11.
I'm constantly trying to remember the unrelenting onslaught of terrorist activity on American soil before then.

(WTC beginning of the 90's.) Yeah, I think that's that constant ever growing terrorist threat that we stopped with our 'Feldzug' though the middle east.

Ten minutes after 9/11 the immediate terrorist threat was reduced to 0.81% because it was only the second Terrorist Action against us on American soil since Oklahoma City and they were our guys.

"The easiest way to control a people is to nurture a feeling of insecurity and vulnerability with State Power being the only protection. Once this is achieved a systematic deletion of personal freedoms and rights will be accepted as 'the price for freedom'.

[Nickdfresh]

NEWSFLASH***This just in! The price of tea in China is steadily increasing!***

I love how people still confuse Iraq with terrorism; if we weren't there, no terrorism would be going on in Iraq.

[DrMaddVibe]

I love how your glass is always 1/2 empty!

[American Gypsy]

"The desire to harm Americans is certainly still out there whether that is wrapped around a specific threat or not," Mason said.

No Shit. They ARE the threat.
The fuckers wanna read your mail, tap your phone and bug your house because you MIGHT have a different point of view, but when the plant where you work gets closed down where are these guys?
Spending billions in the desert that could be helping us at home.
These clowns should be brought up on charges of Economical Terrorism!

Auto plant lays- off? People get pissed about it? Up we go to yellow alert, Scotty. If you still bitch you're not patriotic. Maybe your nieghbors start getting asked strange questions about who drops by over at your place. Maybe someone asks at the travel agent where you booked your vacation where you want to go.

No paranoia here, man, in Cali. they busted an entire group of radicals this way. Yes, it was the Infamous Modern Fiction Group of S.F.
A group of dangerous bookworms that sometimes discussed (remember that thing that's protected by the First Amendment) the war & thought that it was alot of money and scare tactics with no control element.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by DrMaddVibe
I love how your glass is always 1/2 empty!

Except for when it's beer; it's either full or completely empty. No in between, not for very long anyway!:gulp:

[Guitar Shark]

Frankly I'm surprised that 41% of poll respondents still think it was a good idea.

[American Gypsy]

You have to understand that pollsters are optimists and take 'Ahh & Huh?' as affirmative responses.