The original post that started this thread said nothing about the reasons for starting the war in Iraq, and I did not even bring the subject up in my response. The original post quoted a reference that said that:

Like the church confronting Galileo, they aren't about to let reality destroy their cosmology, whether it is a bankrupt plan for pacifying an Iraq that was supposed to welcome us as liberators or a bankrupt fiscal plan health.

Supposedly, people like me are too stupid to see the "truth."

My response was that the facts did not support the judgment of "bankrupt" that was placed on either Iraq reconstruction policy or the economy, and I brought in facts to support this. That's pretty much it.

There are rabid Kool-Aid drinkers across the board in politics. If we want to discuss such things, we could also discuss the fact that in the eyes of the Democrats there is never any such thing as a failed social program. There are only programs we have not spent enough time and money on yet, regardless of the lack of results. The irony should be obvious of these same Democrats demanding near-instant results in Iraq and screeching about spending additional money on the effort.

As for polls:

I have looked at three main polls of Iraqis.

The Zogby Poll was taken in four Iraqi cities: Basra, Karkouk, Mousel and Al Ramadi. Note that Baghdad is not included. (It costs money to get at the original data from Zogby, but the AEI links to a lot of it in PDF format.)

The Gallup Poll was taken in Baghdad. Unfortunately, I have to pay for Gallup's results, and now I have to pay to get at the New York Times article I originally referenced. A search should find analyses of this poll from other papers.

The more informal poll you may be thinking of in your second point is probably this one, the YouGov poll, which admittedly is not quite as rosy in outlook. Here's a typical one by USA Today.

I think there is a poll referred to by CBS as well, but it may be one of the above.

Something that should be kept in mind: under Saddam, Baghdad was a favored city, with preferential access to utilities, supplies, and other resources. The middle class of Baghdad probably did quite well compared to those in the outskirts being shoveled into mass graves. So Baghdad has probably come down in the world a bit, and I'm sure the polls reflect this. One would naturally get a much higher opinion of Americans from a Kurd, a Shiite, or a Marsh Arab than one would from a person who was a computer manager under Saddam's regime and now can't get electricity when he needs it.