Two Polls

A new poll reveals how incredibly ignorant and callous many Americans are.

Americans unaware of Iraqi death toll

Americans are keenly aware of how many U.S. forces have lost their lives in Iraq, according to a new AP-Ipsos poll. But they woefully underestimate the number of Iraqi civilians who have been killed.

When the poll was conducted earlier this month, a little more than 3,100 U.S. troops had been killed. The midpoint estimate among those polled was right on target, at about 3,000.

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Among those polled for the AP survey, however, the median estimate of Iraqi deaths was 9,890. The median is the point at which half the estimates were higher and half lower.

The real number is, of course, much higher. There's no official number, but one study put at 650,000. I don't think an honest observer could put it below 100,000--The U.N. reported 34,000 deaths for 2006 alone. And just think, for every respondent who gave a figure in the hundreds of thousands it would take dozens of people answering absurdly low figures to average down to 9,000.

Add in the amount of people who were injured and the 40,000 Iraqis that are now leaving the country every month and you can start to understand the scale of devastation. Even another factor is the size of the population in proportion to ours. They have (had) 25 million people upon our invasion to our 300 million. Increase the death toll by a factor of 12 to get an idea of what a similar situation in America would be.

Another poll reveals our Anti-Troop Troops:

An overwhelming majority of 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and more than one in four say the troops should leave immediately, a new Le Moyne College/Zogby International survey shows.

One thing: The poll was taken one year ago this month, meaning three quarters of the troops would already like to see us out of Iraq. Looks like the vast majority of the military is even ahead of the Democrats.