Zogby has just come out with a survey taken of 944 military personnel currently serving in Iraq. The results are fascinating: 72% think that the U.S. should pull out in the next year. The tough ones are the marines–only 58% agree with that contention, while 89% in the reserves and 82% of the Guardsmen are saying to bug out within twelve months. One can only assume that Bush and the GOP will now start calling the troops traitors and cowards who just want to cut and run–unless they don’t care about being consistent.

What’s more interesting is data that seems to belie what the government is telling the troops: 85% believe the U.S. attacked to retaliate for “Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks,” and 77% feel that a major reason was “to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq.” Now, the poll was not clear on whether the troops believed that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and was protecting al Qaeda, or whether they thought the administration believed that–but it’s likely the former is true. Which tells you something about the propaganda these kids must be getting fed to them. Even at its most gullible, no more than 70% of the American public believed Saddam was involved in 9/11. And it’s a pretty well-established fact that Saddam did not get along with al Qaeda, and vice-versa; Saddam was clearly not “protecting” them. For these personnel to believe these things means that they’ve been lied to even more than we have.

Zogby explains the survey in more detail in his blog.