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For every bit of good news that comes out of Iraq, such as the recent downturn in U.S. casualties, there's at least as much bad, such as a projection that 2007 will end up being the deadliest year so far for American forces. And just as the U.S. begins making progress winning the support of Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders in Diyala province, fighting breaks out in the Kurdish north.

The mixed signals emerging from Iraq may explain why public opinion on the war remains largely pessimistic, if fairly stable. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds Americans slightly more hopeful than they were in September that progress is being made toward restoring civil order in Iraq, but they remain opposed to U.S. involvement and want troop levels reduced.

Of the over 1,100 Americans surveyed, 59 percent said they do not see signs of progress toward order in Iraq, compared with 39 percent who do. That's a more hopeful reading of the situation than the public gave last December, when two-thirds of respondents said they saw little forward movement in Iraq, but hardly the sea change the administration might have hoped for following the recent abatement of casualties.

There's also little evidence that Americans have changed their minds on keeping U.S. troops in Iraq -- in fact, the number who said they want American forces reduced hit a new high of 60 percent. Just 9 percent favor ramping up troop strength, a significant drop from the summer, when the administration escalated troop levels in the highly publicized "surge."

These and other polling results could provide some comforting news for the Democratic presidential candidates who oppose President Bush's Iraq policies but have also refused to promise a full and immediate troop withdrawal. In the ABC/Post poll, only 17 percent of respondents said they wanted all U.S. forces out of Iraq immediately, and, in a half-sample from a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, the economy overtook Iraq as the issue voters said would be the most important to them in deciding their vote in 2008.

Shades Of Gray In The Torture Debate
The torture debate in Washington is so complex and contentious that legislators and law enforcement officials have made little headway since the war on terrorism put a national spotlight on the issue (witness the debate at the center of the current attorney general confirmation process). Trying to parse the laws governing what constitutes torture and what types of interrogation techniques should be used on terrorism suspects is difficult enough; trying to gauge where the American public stands on the issue is even tougher.

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll on waterboarding, a controversial technique that simulates the sensation of drowning, seems to confirm what many have suspected about Americans' views on torture: Not everyone agrees on the definition, and not everyone agrees that all forms of torture should be banned in the war on terror.

When given a short description of the interrogation practice, nearly seven in 10 respondents in a half-sample deemed waterboarding a form of torture. But when another half-sample was asked if the government should permit the use of waterboarding to extract information from suspected terrorists, a slimmer 58-percent majority said no; four in 10 condoned the practice in that context. The "T-word" was not used in that question.

The Public Pulse -- Latest Opinions At A Glance
The table below offers the latest key national numbers. Click on the number in question for poll details. (Last updated April 2)

20% Job approval rating.	28% Job approval rating.	19% Give the economy a positive rating.	20% Say country is going in right direction.

The above icons represent (left to right) Congress, President Bush, the economy and the direction of the country.

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