Well, since you ask, it is my opinion, based on experience, that few members of the general public chosen at random have a profound understanding of Iraq and Iraqi society. (I certainly don't.) Therefore their personal expectations of success or failure in Iraq(however defined) have little to do with what's actually happening or will happen. Especially if, as you say, the news media have been misleading them.

What remains a fact, though, is that the majority opinion concerning something the opinion-givers don't know much about has little bearing on the actuality of that something. The Iraq War, in this case. All the poll does is count poorly-informed opinions on all sides.

That remains true regardless of the subject of the poll and regardless of whether one likes its findings or not.