[andyfox]

"69 percent are optimistic that things will get even better in the year ahead. For purposes of comparison, they took a similar poll in Europe a while back: In France, 29 percent said they were optimistic about the future; in Germany, 15 percent."

I'm enjoying the debate, but just thought I'd stick my 2 cents in to point out that this is natural. If there were suicide bombers blowing people up every day in France or Germany, there'd probably be a higher percentage of people there who felt things would be not as bad next year. And if they weren't doing it presently in Iraq, there'd probably be a higher percentage of people who would not have a reason for feeling things would be better next year.

More on point, does anyone have any evidence about what percentage of the insurgents are outside agitators and what percentage are domestic? One of Murtha's points was that he believed the president is confusing the insurgency with terrorism. Is he correct?