Support for the war in Iraq is dwindling steadily.

In a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll, more than half of the respondents said the war is a mistake. The death toll continues to rise. Soon 2,000 American soldiers will have been killed in Iraq.

No wonder President Bush and his cronies felt the need to conduct a nationally-televised “teleconference call” Thursday with soldiers stationed in Iraq. In reality, however, The Associated Press said the questions Bush asked were “choreographed to match his goals.”

Not only that, five of the ten soldiers who took part in the teleconference call were officers. Officers are basically the politicians of the military. We need to hear from privates and lance corporals.

The soldiers even went through a rehearsal, making sure they knew who to pass the microphone to. The director of Operation Truth, an advocacy group for Middle East veterans, was quoted as calling the event a “carefully scripted publicity stunt.”

We couldn’t agree more. Now is not the time to be sugarcoating the situation in Iraq. Even though the new Iraqi constitution looks like it will pass, the situation in Iraq remains cloudy.

The American people deserve more. Much more. We deserve to hear from the so-called “grunts.” Also, Bush, or any politician for that matter, should not be leading these talks. American soldiers are conditioned to believe the commander in chief can do no wrong. It’s difficult for them to discuss their true feelings with the president.

If the government is going to conduct these silly teleconference calls, have John Doe conduct it, someone who doesn’t have an agenda and someone who can listen to the soldiers on the ground when they speak their minds.

Our guess is the Bush administration does not want to be embarrassed again the way it was on Dec. 8, 2004. That’s the day Spc. Thomas Wilson famously asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld why many military vehicles lacked the proper armor and why his unit had to search for pieces of scrap metal to armor their vehicles.

We deserve more questions like that. We deserve the truth. Forget about politics and agendas. A good deal more than 100,000 Americans put their lives on the lines daily in Iraq. That’s what we need to remember.

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