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03/02/2006:

"Pentagon dismisses US troop poll"

THE Pentagon has dismissed a poll's finding that 72 per cent of United States troops in Iraq believe the US should pull out within a year or less.
"It shouldn't surprise anybody that a deployed soldier would rather be at home than deployed, even when they believe what they are doing is important and vital work," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

The poll by Le Moyne College and Zogby International found that only 23 per cent believed US troops should stay in Iraq "as long as it takes", as US President George W. Bush has insisted.

Nearly one in three troops said US forces should withdraw immediately.

Another 22 per cent said US forces should be out within six months, and 21 per cent thought they should exit within a year.

"I don't think anybody is getting alarmed over any one poll, if that's what you're asking me," Mr Whitman said.
dailytelegraph.news.com.au


Former US troops rail against war
Mr Viges said: “I am a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace. I was with the 82nd Airborne Division as a mortarman when my unit was deployed to Iraq in February 2003.
“I joined up the day after September 11, 2001. I saw action in Falluja and Baghdad. My mortar platoon dropped numerous rounds on the town of Samawa during the start of the invasion. I don’t know how many innocents I killed with my mortar rounds.

“I was so disgusted by the war that, after we came home in January 2004, I filed for conscientious objector status and received that status in December 2004. I’m a Christian. What was I doing holding a gun to another human being?”

"When in Rome," you know...