Please take this quick poll so I can gauge (to satisfy my own curiosity) prevailing opinion on this site.
The poll is a simple Yes or No. I explain the idea behind it in the extended entry.
So far as I can tell (correct me if I'm wrong) Kos, like many left-ish bloggers, only highlights bad news from Iraq. Now, since at least the so-called "end of major combat operations," if not before, most news has, so far as I can tell, been bad. But there have also been some apparent victories, smaller civic triumphs-- trumpted elsewhere (mostly on right-leaning sites), but, so far as I can remember, not here.
This feeds into one of the more tired (and more offensive) critiques of Iraq war dissenters: that they do not want the US to win in Iraq. This is certainly not true in all cases. I opposed the Iraq War from the beginning, but I have also hoped it would go well from the beginning. I don't think US failure there is likely to bring about anything positive for the Iraqi people, the region or the world.
But maybe some here disagree. Maybe you think Iraqis will be better off if the US loses. Maybe you think victory would take longer and be more destructive than a quick loss, so you root for the latter. Maybe you think some kind of victory in Iraq will inspire even worse imperial adventures in the future. So, which is it? Do you want the US to win or lose? Please explain your vote if you have a moment.
Edit: Some good points made below. This may be entirely the wrong question, and I welcome explanations of why this is so. I only made Yes and No available because I really am curious on a sort of gut level how people respond to this question. (And I figured too many would go for a third option to get a read on that.)
Maybe a better poll question would have been: Should Kos post good news from Iraq? School openings, for instance, civic participation-- the kind of stuff trumpted by the hawks trying to find vindication in the rubble. I think reasonable people can disagree on that question, and it seems worth answering.
A quick look at my past diaries should clear up the question as to whether I'm a Troll. I realize trolling wingnuts could vote "No" and then trumpet the results, but I don't think very many are paying attention for that to be an ethical concern. I mean, at best there will be a hundred or so votes, I imagine.