President Bush often refers to difference in opinions between himself and people who disagree with him, but I pray to God that he doesn't make his decisions based on opinions but analysis!
The fair question that comes up is what is the difference between opinion and analysis and the answer is; A LOT.
An opinion caps off at your ideology and your ideology is limited to your personal understanding of your experience. To better understand this point lets take a look at the definition of ideology.
Ideology: Body of beliefs or principles belonging to an individual or group - First it is important to note that an idea is different than an ideology. The ideology implies that the beliefs and principals have been understood and ideological people are firm in their conviction that what they believe in is the way to go.
Ideological people are dogmatic and their position is often my way or the highway. An analysis has a different quality and has its roots in science. Science is not based on personal experience but historical precedence. A scientific analysis must index theory and experiment and has a clear definition of context.
Opinions are generally the domain of children and lazy minds because they have not nurtured the patience and perseverance to pierce through complex situations.
It is not surprising that in today's tabloid journalism culture where everything is reduce to a punch line and binary response that we are losing the taste for real analysis. Our future depends on our ability as a society to have meaningful dialogues which implies finding answers that help us progress and prosper.
So when you hear that sending more troops to Iraq is the opinion of some but not others you should ask well what is the analysis. Is there historical precedence for what you are doing? Based on your analysis how many troops do you need to quell an insurgency? Can democracy be forced or must it be thought? There are these and many other questions that need to be answered in order to get a whole picture of what the strategy in Iraq should be?
For a country like ours we deserve a congress and leadership that give us a real analysis and not merely short sighted opinions based on ideology that serves the needs of this or that interest group.