From The Huffington Post
By Cenk Uygur

A Washington Post-ABC News poll taken right before the war shows that the American people were never interested in staying in Iraq for this long or at this price.

When asked if they would be in favor of rebuilding Iraq if it meant keeping 50,000 troops in Iraq for several years and spending $15 billion a year, Americans answered overwhelmingly that they would not be in favor of that.
56% opposed, 37% favored.

That was before the war. Before we lost over 3,000 men and women in the desert. Before the 25,000 casualties. Before the $500 billion we have already spent there. Before the 140,000 troops were ensconced there for four, long years. And before further escalations were promised.

Now, who in their right mind would be surprised that an overwhelming number of Americans would be opposed to staying there longer under these circumstances, let alone escalating the conflict? They never signed up for this in the first place.

This February 2003 poll is one of the reasons that Don Rumsfeld gave his infamous order not to do any post-war planning. Because if the American people knew what it would really take to occupy and rebuild Iraq, they would have never gone for it. As you can see in the poll, they wouldn’t have signed up for this, even if it went much, much better than it actually has.

That’s why the administration had to hurry into the war before the public found out what they were buying.

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