The American and Iraqi people agree: U.S. Out of Iraq!

I'll let the report speak for itself. From USA Today:

On the eve of critical testimony to Congress by Gen. David Petraeus, most Americans are skeptical of what he will say and support setting a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq regardless of the military situation there.

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday and Saturday finds that a White House push to spotlight progress in Iraq, including President Bush's surprise stop in Anbar province last week, hasn't fundamentally changed attitudes toward the war.

The propaganda isn't working, and the American people aren't being fooled.

A record 60% say the United States should set a timetable to withdraw forces "and stick to that timetable regardless of what is going on in Iraq."

Regardless of what is going on. No excuses. No Friedman Units. No bullshit progress reports. Set a timetable and get out.

Of course, the Iraqi people might see it differently, right? Because all hell will break loose if we leave. Because all hell hasn't yet broken loose. Right?

Let's see...

The Associated Press reports:

Overwhelming numbers of Iraqis say the U.S. troop buildup has worsened security and the prospects for economic and political progress in their country, according to a poll released Monday that provides a strikingly bleak appraisal of the war.

Well, what would they know? After all, they don't have the American media and the Bush Administration and the Republicans and Joe Lieberman to tell them that the hell they're living isn't as bad as it seems.

Forty-seven percent want American forces and their coalition allies to leave the country immediately, the survey showed, 12 percent more than said so in a March poll as the troop increase was beginning.

That would be a pretty definitive timetable. Like get the hell out. Now!

And 57 percent _ including nearly all Sunnis and half of Shiites _ said they consider attacks on coalition forces acceptable, a slight increase over the past half year.

So, I guess they're saying that they don't want us there. Or something.

Seventy percent in the survey said they believe security has worsened where the added forces were sent, with another 11 percent saying the buildup has had no effect.

They just don't understand. General Betrayus says the surge just needs a little more time. It'll work. Eventually. The sun may go red giant, first; but it will work. Eventually. If we just keep saying so.

With neither the American nor Iraqi people capable of comprehending that what's actually happening isn't what's actually happening, it's encouraging to know that the Democrats are willing to give Bush another Friedman Unit, without any binding obligations. Because the war must go on. Not for any particular reason, it just must. Because it's now an entity unto itself. It lives for itself. It's self-perpetuating. It just is. And no one who can will stop it.