Johah Goldberg dug up that poll that Jim Webb mentioned in his ass clown performance last night.

“Last night ‚Äì despite the fact that Bush is changing the way the war is being fought ‚Äî Jim Webb claimed that ‚Äúthe majority of our military‚Äù does not support ‚Äúthe way this war is being fought‚Äù. This is the poll that is being cited as evidence of his claim:

“Only 35 percent of the military members polled this year said they approve of the way President Bush is handling the war, while 42 percent said they disapproved. […]Just as telling, in this year’s poll only 41 percent of the military said the U.S. should have gone to war in Iraq in the first place, down from 65 percent in 2003.”

http://www.militarycity.com/polls/2006_main.php

However, if you read further, you’ll find that only “13 percent said we should have no troops” in Iraq.

More importantly, though, is this:

the poll is only “of active-duty military subscribers to the Military Times newspapers” and
the “results should not be read as representative of the military as a whole”.

Finally, it’s worth contrasting Webb’s current rhetoric against Iraq with his previous claims of popular support for the war in Vietnam:

The majority of the American people never truly bought the antiwar movement’s logic. While it is correct to say many wearied of an ineffective national strategy as the war dragged on, they never stopped supporting the actual goals for which the United States and South Vietnam fought. As late as September 1972, a Harris survey indicated overwhelming support for continued bombing of North Vietnam – 55 percent to 32 percent – and for mining North Vietnamese harbors – 64 percent to 22 percent. By a margin of 74 percent to 11 percent, those polled also agreed that “it is important that South Vietnam not fall into the control of the communists.”

Typical “Hit and Run” politics from Demcorats.