Cracked up like the road

Here's your Wisconsin referendum results: very few surprises as a handful of midwestern communities vote to bring the troops home. Isn't democracy irritating?

More relevant is the megatrend which shows a majority of citizens in both Britain and the U.S. are opposed to the war. Not that we're hostile to intervention in foreign lands, it's just that our priorities are a tad different:

The US public holds a strikingly clear view of what Washington's foreign policy priorities should be. The goals the public highlights range widely. Those that receive the most public support are helping other nations when they are struck by natural disasters (71 percent), cooperating with other countries on problems such as the environment and disease control (70 percent), and supporting UN peacekeeping (69 percent). A surprisingly high level of support shows up for goals that represent the United States' humanitarian (as distinct from its political) ideals, such as improving the treatment of women in other countries (57 percent), helping people in poor countries get an education (51 percent), and helping countries move out of poverty (40 percent). Receiving less support are goals such as encouraging US businesses to invest in poor countries (22 percent). And receiving the least support is "actively creating democracies in other countries" (20 percent).

If we're going to intervene militarily in foreign affairs, let's do it for coherent reasons that serve the greater good. Bush's rhetoric about spreading democracy is really just window dressing, anyone can see that.