Bullshit For Sale!

But most people aren't buying anymore. In my previous post, I noted Matt Taibbi's optimistic claim that no educated person bought Bush's bullshit prior to the Iraq war. However, the war, once it began, received widespread support. That trend has since reversed itself. Over half of the public now thinks that invading Iraq was a colossal mistake (I considered filing this under "N").

Salon (subscription necessary--or just click through the ads to get the day pass) has this article, hot off the wires:

U.S. public now evenly split on Iraq war

Nine months of chaos and casualties in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's capture have taken a heavy toll on American opinion of President Bush's decision to go to war. Last December, when Saddam was caught, public support for Bush was 2-to-1 in favor. Now the public is evenly divided on whether the war was the right thing to do or whether it was a mistake.

Older people, minorities, people with lower incomes, residents of the Northeast and Catholics are among those increasingly skeptical of the war effort, according to Associated Press polling.

These shifts in public sentiment reflect the difficulties in Iraq -- including a death toll nearing 1,000 U.S. soldiers, the violent insurgency against the new Iraqi government and U.S. forces and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, which was among the central justifications for Bush's decision to go to war.

--snip--

For Jim Adams, a 42-year-old Republican from Plymouth, N.H., the decision to use force in Iraq was right, but the follow-through was lacking.

"I don't think it was a mistake to go there," Adams said. "But we've gone down a slippery slope.

"We had good reason to go based on the evidence at the time, but we've gone in a direction we never intended to go," he said. "We've alienated the population. We wanted the population to embrace our values, and we've done exactly the opposite."

What the hell? "We wanted the population to embrace our values, and we've done exactly the opposite"? What the hell does he mean?

Does he think that "the population" over there just didn't have any values, so they'd be happy to adopt "our values" (whatever the hell those are)? Or did Mr. Adams simply assume that everyone in Iraq was out value-shopping?

"Oh, look, Umar--we can get Chinese values for half off!"

"I'll pass. I'm holding out for those top-notch American values! I hope someone brings them here, so I can pick them up for a song!"

But back to the article:

In the August poll, those most likely to say the Iraq war was the right thing to do were Republicans, Southerners, those who earn more than $50,000 a year and young adults.

"Iraq was getting out of hand," said Kim Rivers, a 35-year-old Republican who works as a teacher's aide in Champlain, N.Y. "It should have been done a long time ago."

Yet among many different groups of Americans, a majority of people now say the war was a mistake. Those groups include minorities (65 percent), Northeasterners (60 percent), Democrats (80 percent), people who make less than $25,000 a year (57 percent) and Catholics (51 percent).

Ahh, Southerners. Thanks again for living down to my expectations.

And don't get me started on Ms. Rivers, who needs to strap on some Kevlar and pick up a rifle or shut the hell up.