Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Paradigm shift

FT.com:

Growing public dissatisfaction with both the war in Iraq and US relations with the Muslim world could soon lead the American public to demand a change of course by the administration, according to a new poll of foreign policy attitudes.

[. . .]

That combination of strong public opinion and the belief that the government is responsible for addressing it makes the Iraq war "the foreign policy issue that most clearly appears to have reached a tipping point", said Daniel Yankelovich, a pollster and chairman of Public Agenda, a nonprofit research group that conducted the poll.

[. . .]

"If the war in Iraq lingers, the standoff with Tehran lasts, and relations with Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Syria remain troubled, the next reading of [the index] could well reveal that the vague apprehension the American public now feels has crystallised into a demand for changes in US foreign policy," he said.

[. . .]


Unbelievably, or maybe not, it took us 5 years to reach this point. Maybe now, most Americans won't fall for the next distraction coming out of 1600.

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