UPI-Zogby poll: Iraq hurts our standing in world

Via Think Progress comes a blurb about a UPI-Zogby poll showing that a majority of Americans think the Iraq occupation has damaged our standing internationally. From Moonie-owned UPI:

Nearly 80 percent of participants in a UPI-Zogby International poll said the Iraq war has hurt the United States' standing the international community.

More than half -- 51.1 percent -- of the 7,562 U.S. residents who responded to the question strongly agreed with the statement, "The Iraq war has damaged the standing of the United States in the international community."

Another 25.4 percent said they somewhat agreed with the statement while 21.2 percent with somewhat disagreed (12.8 percent) or strongly disagreed (8.4 percent).

Admittedly, part of linking to polls is wish aspect one wishes to push. UPI also has a blurb featuring polling results showing Congress gets lower marks than George W. Bush on the war, attributed to strong dissatisfaction within the party over their inability to actually get something done about it. Which may be something of an unfair criticism, given the relatively short time Democrats have been in charge and the razor-thin margin in the Senate, not to mention the obstructionism displayed by the White House and Congressional Republicans.

Still, one broad-brush view to take away is that the people are still not happy with the Iraq occupation. A slight bump in Bush's approval numbers on the occupation doesn't really mean a lot at this point. A significant majority of 57% still give Bush a "poor" rating on Iraq, down from 59% last month, according to the UPI-Zogby poll. Not exactly a huge change in public opinion. If this were an election nobody would even be covering Bush any more.