Check out this analysis by Gallup (hat tip to kos). Now, take a look at when support for the Iraq War flipped–between November of 2004 and March of 2005, shortly after the Iraq War ceased to be resolved by the massive assault on Fallujah and the Iraqi election.
So lets return for a minute to a question Democrats asked during the election: why did Bush chicken out in Fallujah in April of 2004? Was it because it was highly likely that it was not going to do a damn thing to quell the insurgency and would have precipitated this flip in opinion before the November election? I really wonder what exactly we did in Iraq between April and November of last year besides just wait out the presidential election. Maybe there is a smoking gun document on this, too. It seems awfully fishy.
Bush needed the specter of the “Sunni Triangle” to maintain the illusion that there was still a war left to win. The reason he was able to get away with not sweeping into the Sunni Triangle before November is that the beheadings provided him with just that extra boost in anger and deference for many frightened Americans to give him the benefit of the doubt for long enough to cover his butt.
I really wonder if a portion of this war can correctly be labeled “Wag the Dog.”
