An analysis in Sunday's New York Times looks at the influence of polling in the President's recent "Victory in Iraq" speech.
The speech featured the word "victory" 15 times.
Add in the banners touting "Plan for Victory" and you get an idea of the word he wanted to stick with listeners.
Well, maybe not what Mr Bush wanted -- but what Peter D Feaver wanted.
Can't Win a War? Win their Hearts & Minds Instead
We've mentioned Prof Feaver here before. He's one of the nation's top academic experts on public opinion in war. The Bush administration recrutited him in the spring to help re-sell the Iraq War to the American people. Prof Feaver helped the Bush administration craft the speech he gave in June at Fort Bragg.
Dr Feaver and his collegues found that the American people would support a war if they believed the US would ultimately prevail.
That suggests that the administration's first goal is to convince the war will succeed -- actually succeeding is secondary.
Dr Feaver & Company's research strikes at the conventional wisdom that's prevailed since Vietnam -- that Americans will support a war so long as US casualties remain low. They argued that Americans will support military actions under two circumstances: 1) the war is a worthy cause, and 2) a belief than the US can win.
In large part, winning the war has become secondary to winning the hearts and minds of the American people. If that can be done, the administration appears to believe they can continue a poorly run war as long as necessary to reach their objective. (NYT)
1 comment:
This administration has clearly been losing the war in the American Streets. It is about time they recognized all the success on the battlefield is superflous if they lose the battle of public opinion. It was a lesson General Giap spoke of, as have current al-Qaeda leaders.
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