Reuters is reporting that the image of the United States has deteriorated around the world in the past year because of issues such as Iraq and prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

The results are according to a poll by the BBC World Service released on Tuesday.

A few other conclusions: The proportion of people believing the United States has a mainly positive influence in world affairs dropped seven points from a year ago -- to 29 percent from 36, the results from 18 countries that were also polled the previous year showed.

Fifty-two percent thought U.S. influence was mainly negative, up from 47 percent a year ago, the poll found.

The survey, released on the day President George W. Bush gives his State of the Union speech to Congress, found sharp disagreement with U.S. policy on Iraq which is ravaged by violence nearly four years after the U.S.-led invasion. In all, 26,381 people were questioned in 25 countries. Almost three in four people disapproved of U.S. policy on Iraq, while two-thirds disapproved of U.S. handling of terrorism suspects held at the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba.

"The U.S. administration's recent decision to send more troops to Iraq is at odds with global public opinion ... This policy is likely to further hurt America's image," Doug Miller, president of pollsters GlobeScan, said.

More than two-thirds believed the U.S. military presence in the Middle East provoked more conflict than it prevented and only 17 percent thought U.S. troops there were a stabilising force.

Since Reuters reported on Friday that the steadily rising cost of the Iraq war would reach about $8.4 billion a month this year, perhaps some like to keep a tally on a moment by moment basis. For those who would like to watch closely, the National Priorities Project has running total of the cost of the war to U.S. taxpayers, based on data from Congressional Appropriations. The calculator can also be embedded on your own site. The site also has a section to compare it to other things such as public housing, college scholarships, kids' health, and pre-school.

At the moment of this posting, the cost of the war was: $360,407,064,625

Using the handy dandy "cost in your community" comparison. Instead of the war, we could have paid for:

Instead, we could have paid for 47,736,231 children to attend a year of Head Start

Instead, we could have built 3,245,141 additional housing units.

Instead, we could have provided 17,471,822 students four-year scholarships at public universities.

Instead, we could have hired 6,245,928 additional public school teachers for one year.

Instead, we could have insured 215,813,687 children for one year.

Date	Deaths
January 26, 2005	37
March 23, 2003	30
January 20, 2007	20

The AP report on today's deaths.

Period		Deaths		Days		Average
January		24		19		1.26
December		112		31		3.61
2006		821		365		2.25
2005		846		365		2.32
2004		848		365		2.32
2003		486		285		1.71
Total		3025		1402		2.16

Death tallies from Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. Averages calculated by IraqSlogger.

In fresh Fox News poll results, 61% of Americans say the "surge" plan is Bush's last chance to succeed in Iraq. Other noteworthy poll results: President Bush's unfavorable rating is higher than Vice President Cheney's, and 27% of Americans have never heard of Defense Secretary Gates. Click here for the full report PDF. Questions 13-33 deal with Iraq.

The Interntational Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq (IRFFI) helps international donors channel their resources to the Iraq reconstruction effort. So far 25 donors have committed about $1.6 billion to the Facility. To read it, click here: IRAQDATASHEETDec06.pdf

In the first U.S. opinion poll results after Bush's address to the nation last night, 61% of Americans say they oppose boosting U.S. troop levels in Iraq, 58% say the war is not worth fighting, 57% say the U.S. is losing the war, and 57% say they're doubtful the Iraqi government can meet its security-related promises. Here are the ABC News/Washington Post poll results.

The International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq has published its latest Iraq Economic Data Sheet. The sheet was prepared and funded by the World Bank's administrative budget.

The December 2006 report includes information on human development, exchange rates, millennium goals and indicators, income levels, oil production, interest rates and other areas.

IRAQDATASHEETDec06.pdf

Two out of every three Latinos now believe that U.S. troops should be brought home from Iraq as soon as possible and only one in four thinks the U.S. made the right decision in using military force, according to a new survey by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Hispanics have generally expressed more negative views toward the war compared with the rest of the population. The latest survey, however, shows an even stronger opposition on the part of Latinos, especially when it comes to keeping troops in Iraq.

Two-thirds of Hispanics (66%) now favor bringing troops home as soon as possible, up from 51% in January 2005. Conversely, the share of Latinos who favored keeping troops in Iraq until the situation there has stabilized has declined from 37% to 19%.

Native-born Hispanics are generally more supportive of the war than their foreign-born counterparts. But in the latest survey, the native born are almost as adamant about bringing troops home as the foreign born (62% vs. 68% respectively).

The general public also is more inclined to bring the troops home, but not to the same extent as Hispanics. A survey of the general population by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press in December found that one in two Americans (50%) favored bringing troops home as soon as possible, up from 41% in January 2005. The changing attitude toward the war is also evident in the answer to a basic question: Do you think the U.S. made the right decision or the wrong decision in using military force against Iraq?

Since 2004, a third or more of Latinos responded that using military force was the right decision. In the latest survey, only 24% of Latinos agreed with that assessment. That is down from 39% in April/June 2004 and from 31% in August/October 2006.

There are several documents on the website, including background material from the past two years, in case readers would like to compare results.

ABC News today has released a poll of Senator's attitudes on Iraq with some enlightening numbers:

28 of 77 Senators who voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq in October 22 say they would vote differently knowing then what they know now.

5 said the intelligence in retrospect was so wrong the matter would never even have been voted on

1 said the intelligence in retrospect was so wrong Congress never would have passed it

15 stood by their vote

9 refused to answer the hypothetical question

16 refused to respond despite repeated requests

3 could not answer

An ABC News story explains the numbers in greater detail.