A new poll shows that only 34% of Americans think the war is going well.

Popular belief that the United States is coasting to victory in Iraq has fallen sharply, a new U.S. opinion poll showed on Friday, as Washington struggled in the image battle at home and abroad.

The Gallup survey for CNN and USA Today said public support for the war remained steady at around 70 percent...However, the number of Americans who thought the conflict was going "very well" shot down after news reports from the front lines of U.S. military setbacks and cautions from President Bush against any talk of a quick victory.

Gallup said just 34 percent of Americans surveyed on Monday and Tuesday thought the war was going very well.

That was down from 44 percent on Sunday, the day Iraqi television broadcast graphic images of killed and captured American soldiers, and from 62 percent on Saturday."

In a new CBS poll, 55 percent of those responding believed the United States had underestimated the Iraqi army. In an ABC News/Washington Post survey, 57 percent of now expected fighting to last months rather than weeks.

It's clear to us that the Bush Administration was not forthright about the details of the war before it started. Realistic estimates of the war's cost, its length, expected strength of Iraqi resistance and the number of expected casualties all should have been shared with the American people.

Last night we viewed a network report that the Administration had told the American people what to expect--as proof, they played a two sentence clip from a Bush speech last October!

We expect support for this war to erode further as more U.S. and British troops are killed or taken prisoner, particlularly thosed killed by trickery--as were the four marines killed last night by a suicide bomber posing as a taxi driver. What a needless waste of life.

The best way to support our troops is to bring them home now.

Update: Iraq's Vice President says suicide bombings will now be "routine military policy."