Accurate news reporting on Iraq War and troop withdrawal plans! Quick! Capture the moment.

Greg Sargent posted comments about an impeccably fair story. Can you believe USAToday had the audacity to publish a fair and accurate news report? Watch out, Susan Page! The lapdogs will howl:

First, note how clearly [Susan] Page specifies that the proposals the public supports are Democratic ones. Also note that she focuses on the larger pro-withdrawal category -- people who "support withdrawing all U.S. forces immediately or within 12 months" -- without focusing more directly on the much smaller number of people who favor immediate withdrawal, which makes the pro-withdrawal position sound more marginal. Read the way Page does it, the numbers show more support for withdrawal within a year than for staying indefinitely.

Also, check out how impudently Page makes it very clear that the Republican-controlled Senate defeated Democratic calls for starting troop reductions. And finally, note the startling 57-31 percent divide between people who want Congress to solve this problem as opposed to people who want the White House to solve it -- a very revealing breakdown of public opinion towards the White House I haven't seen anywhere else.

If there were more reporting like this on these questions, the state of political play in this country would be quite different right now. Guaranteed.

Greg linked to Billmon, always the witty blogger, who had proclaimed, Terrorists win:

Why do the majority of Americans hate America so?

A clear majority of Americans say Congress should pass a resolution that outlines a plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday. Half of those surveyed would like all U.S. forces out of Iraq within 12 months . . . In the poll, 57% say Congress should pass a resolution that outlines a plan for withdrawing U.S. troops; 39% say that decision should be left to the president and his advisers.

Since America haters and terrorist sympathizers are now such a solid majority, maybe we should hold an election and disband the country -- or better yet, declare the New Islamic Caliphate!

Ha! Billmon, you scoundrel, inserting reality with a twist of satire into the cut and run spiel from the Beltway. Why you might tempt Lee Siegel to rescind your blogofascist card-carrying status, that is, if he can suspend his contempt for bloggers. Isn't contempt similar to hatred, one of those traits of fascism? Tsk, tsk. Minor detail.

In the USAToday poll that Susan Page cites, 55% think the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq. In the poll conducted Nov. 13-15, 1973–one year after Nixon's re-election and several months after the last U.S. combat troops left Vietnam–60% of Americans thought "the U.S. made a mistake sending troops to fight in Vietnam." And they say it's the left-wing whose nostalgia dies hard. Why do the majority of Americans rate the Iraq War within 5 points of the Vietnam War? To paraphrase Billmon, why do they hate America so?