Why is it that so many Americans will only accept bad news from Iraq as truth?

Question

I asked earlier if General Petraeus reported progress in Iraq would a continued effort be supported. Most people said no because they thought Petraeus would say whatever Bush wanted him to about the success of the troop surge.
General Petraeus may have been appointed by Bush, but his appointment was approved by congress. Congress, therefore, must give this general some credibility.
Has the level of trust in our government reached an all time low that Americans aren't willing to believe even our military leaders? Why is it that General Petraeus will only be believed if he reports this fall that the situation in Iraq is without hope?

Answer 1

Cause that's all the news that the liberal media will give them. Good things that happen doesn't sell news only bad news does.

Answer 2

Yes, America can no longer trust this rogue regime. General Petraeus has some credibility, but there has been no progress politically which is the key to ending the civil war. Let's wait until Sept 15th and see what he has to say. The Iraq government is on vacation and is crumbling as we speak. The future of Iraq is not bright, actually there is a humanitarian crises taking place right now in Iraq. I only watch BBC World News because the American media is bought and paid for just like our politicians.

Answer 3

Actually the news is reporting that the surge is working, however, the Iraq government is falling apart completely. This is being reported by all news media. Without some kind of government there, we can't leave. The leaders in Iraq do not want this government to work. Isn't that obvious? Maybe the U.S. needs to follow Joe Bidens advice and divide the country into three separate states instead of trying to unite these people. They clearly do not wish to be united.

Answer 4

The Bush administration has been caught in so many lies that their credibility is very low. This makes people pessimistic about the war.

The quality of a good manager is being able to evaluate a plan or a program to see if it's performing to expectation. If it's not working, he has to be able to back off and come up with a new plan. President Bush and his people don't seem able to admit that things aren't going well in Iraq, or to come up with a new plan. This gets more and more obvious as time goes by.

Bush says he listens to his generals but he's gotten rid of every general who didn't tell him what he wanted to hear. That's why people don't trust what General Petraeus says. His credibility is the same as the administration's.

Answer 5

Americans are fed up with Iraq. I believe that many can no longer see the benefit to the American people of remaining in this country, myself included. I supported the war because I believed Hussein needed to be removed. We have achieved our stated goals for fighting this war. However, the administration continues to alter those goals. I don't doubt that the surge is having it's desired effect. I also do not doubt that the report in September will be accurate in it's findings. My question at this point is what is our goal? I have asked this question many times and the standard supporter answer is to win, but what will we consider a win? To date no one has been able to answer this question to my satisfaction. The administration answer is when Iraq is safe, but how do we quantify safety? We cannot even guarantee safety from terrorism on our own streets. I just believe that it is now time for the Iraqis to stand or fall on their own merits. We can provide them with logistical support and continued training, but providing their security grows ever more expensive and if you listen to the administration view, never ending. We cannot fight an indefinite war and continue to foot the escalating bill. At some point the debt is going to become overwhelming and unmanageable. This just really isn't acceptable given the fact that the majority of Americans no longer support the action in question.

Answer 6

How is positive progress measured in Iraq? Only one thousand Iraqis killed in a month vs. two thousand? That's great! I'm sure the thousands fleeing the country every month will be totally heartened by that.
Only 81 US soldiers killed in July. Awesome! How delightful for their families.

Iraq is a massive humanitarian crisis. I don't know how anyone could possibly spin it positive.

At this point, the conflict that we instigated (by invading for whatever reason Bush selects from his multiple choice guide)
has made things so much worse than they ever were under Saddam (which is incredible considering how awful he was).
Cheney has forced the US public into finishing his 'tidy, little war' while the Taliban re-surges in Afghanistan and Al Qeada gets on-the-job training in what used to be the Cradle of Civilization.

Such patriots. Such Americans.

Answer 7

When you are responsible for overseeing a project, and you evaluate your own progress, how often would you report anything but success?

I keep an eye, on police chief reports about crime in my area. One year they reported that a 4% increase in arrests clearly showed that the police department was doing a great job of catching criminals.
The very next year, they claimed that an 11% decrease in arrests clearly showed that they where doing a great job of discouraging criminal activity.

Don't know what you think about that, but it appears, that no matter what happens in my area, the police department is going to come out smelling like a rose.
Do you think the feds will operate things any differently?

Answer 8

Liberals are only interested in news that will bash the president. They don't care about innocent lives that have been saved since we have occupied Iraq. They don't care about the tens of thousands of innocent people who were murdered before Bush put a stop to it. They only care about themselves and criticizing Bush because Hollywood makes it look cool.

Answer 9

Rah rah rah....the General can say whatever he likes but when Busses bombs explode in baghdad every single day it's sort of hard to see the "progress" the General is talking about.

When people stop exploding then we'll talk. Until then I seriously doubt you're going to convince anyone the surge is working.

Answer 10

I don't agree with whoever said that...I saw Democratic Congressmen talking on Meet The Press over the weekend and they said the General's report is very important.

Answer 11

believing our leaders got us into this quagmiere

Maybe Gen Patraeus is afraid his career will come to a screeching halt as did all of the other Generals that oppose this war and the way it is being prosectuted
or
Maybe it's because the "good news" comes from MAJOR Supporters of BUSH and has little to do with the truth
you know
like---You can walk through Bagdad and it's safe ( McCain)