The Pew Forum, at people-press.org, released their study of current opinion surrounding the War in Iraq. Among the breakdowns among party lines, one thing jumped out to my attention:

Republicans Remain Confident of Success

Despite their widespread concerns about the current state of affairs in Iraq, most Republicans remain upbeat about the prospects for the future. More than three-quarters (77%) of Republicans believe the U.S. will definitely or probably succeed in achieving its goals in Iraq.

About a third of Democrats (34%) believe the U.S. will succeed, while 61% say it will definitely or probably fail; somewhat more independents think the U.S. is likely to achieve its goals in Iraq.

Consistent GOP Support for Bush Policy

Just as Republicans remain confident of success in Iraq, they also have consistently supported the Bush administration's Iraq policy. Roughly three-quarters (76%) say the war was the right decision, which is unchanged from January and virtually the same as in August 2006. Last February, GOP support for the decision to go to war was only modestly higher (81%).

Similarly, stable majorities of Republicans believe U.S. troops should remain in Iraq until the situation there is stabilized; 71% say that now, which also is about the same as in last August (72%) and February (73%).

Moreover, the number of Republicans who say more troops are needed in Iraq increased sharply after Bush announced the surge plan last month. Currently, 42% of Republicans say more U.S. forces are needed in Iraq; that is a bit lower than last month (47%). But twice as many Republicans now say more troops are needed than did so last August (42% vs. 21%).

We've seen death. We've seen bombs, we've seen civilians, we've seen mutilated children. We've heard car bombs, we've listened to "The Angry American" and then, seen more IEDs. What could be making Republicans -- over 75% of them -- still think that Iraq is a good idea, and that we should send more troops?

As Dr. Phil Zimbardo, Emeritus Professor of Social Psychology at Stanford University, notes, there was a 27 percent increase in terrorist incidents and a 56 percent increase in casualties during a time (pre-Iraq-early-Iraq) when there was "unprecedented spending by the United States to wage a war on terror." Military maneuvers are not a panacea for terrorist incidents.

Dr. Harry Triandis, in 1989 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in his article entitled "The Self and Social Behavior in Differing Cultural Contexts", noted that in collectivist social structures (like the current PR-driven GOP) people can develop a "conformity to ingroup goals, which leads to internalization of
the ingroup goals. Thus, people do what is expected of them, even if that is not enjoyable."

To connect this to our context, for many American Republicans, "W's goal became my goal." Do we know what W's goal is? No. To many American Republicans, perhaps, "W is fighting for me. W wants what I want."

Yet this is the same administration which has slashed veterans' benefits, left hundreds of thousands of children "behind", and balked at raising minimum wage to livable levels. The goals of this cabal are "not enjoyable" for many of the people backing it.

Yet they still seem to be supporting him in large numbers.

Insane.