Poll - Americans who believe worth going to war with Iraq - All Time Low of 39%

[Engineer]

Falling...falling....falling.....watch the support falling....

Support for War in Iraq Hits New Low

Wed Jan 19, 7:55 AM ET Top Stories - Los Angeles Times


By Doyle McManus Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON ? Support for the war in Iraq (news - web sites) has continued to erode, but most Americans still are inclined to give the Bush administration some time to try to stabilize the country before it withdraws U.S. troops, the Los Angeles Times Poll has found.




The poll, conducted Saturday through Monday, found that the percentage of Americans who believed the situation in Iraq was "worth going to war over" had sunk to a new low of 39%. When the same question was asked in a similar poll in October, 44% said it had been worth going to war.


But when asked whether the United States should begin withdrawing troops after Iraq's election Jan. 30, 52% said the administration should wait to see what the new Iraqi government wanted. More than a third, 37%, said the United States should begin drawing down at least some of its troop strength.


Americans are almost evenly divided over how long U.S. forces should stay in Iraq, the poll found: 47% said they would like to see most of the troops out within a year, while 49% say they could support a longer deployment ? including 37% who say the troops should remain "as long as it takes" to secure and stabilize the country.


The results suggest that while Americans have grown more pessimistic about the chances for success in Iraq, most are willing to give President Bush (news - web sites) some time to try to turn the operation into a success.


"We are seeing lower support for the war, but I would have expected it to be even lower ? given that the main rationale for the war ? the weapons of mass destruction ? turned out not to be there," said John Mueller, a political scientist at Ohio State University who is an authority on wartime public opinion.


Mueller noted that support for the war had been falling gradually since the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, but that the erosion had not produced a majority in favor of early troop withdrawals.


"Support for this war is now lower than support for the Vietnam War was at the Tet offensive," Mueller said, citing the 1968 battles that were a turning point in U.S. public opinion then. "But in Vietnam [after Tet], the war continued for several years, and many people continued to support it through enormous casualties."


In Iraq, he noted, the number of U.S. casualties has been far lower than in Vietnam, a probable reason that public pressure for withdrawal has not mounted higher.


On the other hand, public support for increasing U.S. troop strength in Iraq ? a proposal Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) (R-Ariz.) and several other members of Congress have made ? is negligible, the poll found. Only 4% of respondents said they would favor increasing American forces after the Iraqi election.


Respondents to The Times poll were downbeat about the results of the war in Iraq on several counts.


Asked which side ? the United States or the anti-American insurgents ? was winning the war or if it was a stalemate, 58% said that neither side appeared to have the upper hand, while 29% said they believed the United States was winning and 10% said the insurgents were winning.


Respondents were divided on whether the Jan. 30 election was likely to be a turning point leading to a significant improvement in Iraq's stability: 31% said they thought it would have a positive effect, 34% said they expected no significant effect, and 27% said they thought the election would actually lead to more violence.


Respondents also were divided on whether the election would help advance democracy in the Middle East, one of the Bush administration's main goals: 47% said it would probably advance democracy, but 45% said it probably would not.


But 59% said they favored holding the election on schedule despite fears of violence on election day. Over a third, or 35%, said the vote should be postponed.


Almost half, or 45%, said they believed the war had destabilized the Middle East; 24% said they thought it had a stabilizing effect. In April 2003, 52% thought that military action against Iraq would stabilize the situation in the Middle East.


And a large majority, 65%, said they believed the war in Iraq had harmed the United States' image around the world. Only 10% said the U.S. image had been helped.

The Times poll, supervised by polling director Susan Pinkus, surveyed 1,033 adults. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

 

[glenn1]

While I suppose the headline of this poll is an interesting factoid, I find it hard to see its relevance. Fact is that we did invade Iraq, so whether people now think it was a good idea or not is kinda moot. Now the second question about the speed of troop withdrawal is certainly food for thought, since that's something which hasn't yet been decided so public opinion on the matter is definitely more useful.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: glenn1
While I suppose the headline of this poll is an interesting factoid, I find it hard to see its relevance. Fact is that we did invade Iraq, so whether people now think it was a good idea or not is kinda moot. Now the second question about the speed of troop withdrawal is certainly food for thought, since that's something which hasn't yet been decided so public opinion on the matter is definitely more useful.

It is indeed revelant when Bushie just told the American people that his win in the election ratified his policy in Iraq. The numbers above refute that heavily. They may have chosen that @sshole again, but that doesn't mean that they RATIFY all of the @sshat's policies, especially Iraq.

 

[lozina]

Originally posted by: glenn1
While I suppose the headline of this poll is an interesting factoid, I find it hard to see its relevance. Fact is that we did invade Iraq, so whether people now think it was a good idea or not is kinda moot. Now the second question about the speed of troop withdrawal is certainly food for thought, since that's something which hasn't yet been decided so public opinion on the matter is definitely more useful.

Wow look at you desperately squirming to marginalize this poll. You find it hard to see it's relevance? Relevance to what, to our trade deficit? If so yeah it has no relevance, but in regards how the people were duped into supporting this war in the first place it bears significant relevance. Yeah, we did invade Iraq, so we should not judge it anymore? "Yes your honor, we found the suspect did murder the victim but it really bears no relevance because what is done is done so let's all just move on and let the suspect go"... Right... :roll:

What this poll shows- clearly- is that based on the fact that WMD's were not found and how the official report recently implied they probably never will be found, is that the people would not have supported this war back in 2003 if there weren't such extravagent images of mushroom clouds over Manhattan.

Maybe you don't like to think about that, but I do, and I hope the people in general remember this for a long time.

 

[Stunt]

i dont care how high the supprt for iraq war is.

im more concerned that if it drops too low that it will cause a premature pull out.
and concerned about american support for future wars...

^^much more important imo

 

[ntdz]

He beat Kerry didn't he...

 

[Stunt]

Originally posted by: ntdz
He beat Kerry didn't he...

If i were american i would have prolly voted bush just to get him to fix iraq and see if conservatism actually works...so far it is sucking...but economy is in an upswing...nice to see if the tax cuts reall have an effect

 

[dahunan]

HIS Voters are MORE AFRAID OF HOMOSEXUALS than they are terrorism And Rove knew this.

 

[yllus]

Polls go up, polls go down. Fact of life. One type of poll matters a little more, though - it comes around every four years or so. Name the winner of that poll!

 

[SuperTool]

Looks like support for the war is slipping.
It's nice that we have friendly Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, so we won't have to leave by helicopter.

 

[BBond]

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: glenn1
While I suppose the headline of this poll is an interesting factoid, I find it hard to see its relevance. Fact is that we did invade Iraq, so whether people now think it was a good idea or not is kinda moot. Now the second question about the speed of troop withdrawal is certainly food for thought, since that's something which hasn't yet been decided so public opinion on the matter is definitely more useful.

It is indeed revelant when Bushie just told the American people that his win in the election ratified his policy in Iraq. The numbers above refute that heavily. They may have chosen that @sshole again, but that doesn't mean that they RATIFY all of the @sshat's policies, especially Iraq.

Along with telling America their vote for him ratified his fraudulent Iraq invasion the arrogant imbecile also said any and all fault, blame, and or mistakes re: his underlings culpability is not null and void.

He thinks because he won an election that everything he and his minions did in life up to that point is now forgiven and accountability, while never a component of his administration, is nonetheless now over.

What hubris.

 

[BBond]

The polls could drop to negative numbers and it wouldn't matter a bit to the imbecile-in-chief.

He has his own reality to consider and information that damages his fantasy is not welcome.

Whose Future is This Anyway?

Perhaps he even sent Powell -- or, as other rumors have it, a slightly lower-level official -- to the principal. This fits, by the way, with an account in the invaluable Washington insider e-service The Nelson Report. Chris Nelson wrote the following in the first week of January after various officials had returned from discouraging inspection trips to Iraq:

"There is rising concern among senior officials that President Bush does not grasp the increasingly grim reality of the security situation in Iraq because he refuses to listen to that type of information. Our sources say that attempts to brief Bush on various grim realities have been personally rebuffed by the President, who actually says that he does not want to hear ?bad news.' Rather, Bush makes clear that all he wants are progress reports, where they exist, and those facts which seem to support his declared mission in Iraq? building democracy. ?That's all he wants to hear about,' we have been told. So, ?in' are the latest totals on school openings and ?out' are reports from senior U.S. military commanders (and those intelligence experts still on the job) that they see an insurgency becoming increasing effective, and their projection that it will ?just get worse.'"

If true -- and Nelson is a reliable guy and Dinmore's tale is just bizarre enough to have the ring of fiction, which these days seems to mean truth -- these accounts catch something of the bizarrely upbeat fiction-based reality of the Bush White House. We already know that the particular fictions of the Bush administration -- those mushroom clouds rising over American cities thanks to Saddam Hussein's nonexistent nuclear program, the evanescent al-Qaeda/Saddam ties, and the fantasy biological and chemical production and delivery systems that were to send poisons spewing over our East coast via nonexistent Iraqi unmanned aerial vehicles -- were among the numerous fictions successfully imposed on a majority of the American people. Some of them (though no longer the WMD ones) are still being repeated by administration officials and being believed, according to polls, by surprising numbers of Americans.

 

[Ozoned]

I distinctly remember information of all sorts from polls before the last election.

We all know how that turned out. Heh heh..

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: yllus
Polls go up, polls go down. Fact of life. One type of poll matters a little more, though - it comes around every four years or so. Name the winner of that poll!

Yep. I guess it matters more to be re-elected than to be truthful on a WAR. People are starting to see this war for what it is...a big FVCKING BUSHSHIT SCAM.

 

[Ldir]

Originally posted by: BBond

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: glenn1
While I suppose the headline of this poll is an interesting factoid, I find it hard to see its relevance. Fact is that we did invade Iraq, so whether people now think it was a good idea or not is kinda moot. Now the second question about the speed of troop withdrawal is certainly food for thought, since that's something which hasn't yet been decided so public opinion on the matter is definitely more useful.

It is indeed revelant when Bushie just told the American people that his win in the election ratified his policy in Iraq. The numbers above refute that heavily. They may have chosen that @sshole again, but that doesn't mean that they RATIFY all of the @sshat's policies, especially Iraq.

Along with telling America their vote for him ratified his fraudulent Iraq invasion the arrogant imbecile also said any and all fault, blame, and or mistakes re: his underlings culpability is not null and void.

He thinks because he won an election that everything he and his minions did in life up to that point is now forgiven and accountability, while never a component of his administration, is nonetheless now over.

What hubris.

Is it hubris or brain damage? Dubya has lost his grip on reality.

 

[PatboyX]

i was listening to some pollsters on NPR talk about this sort of thing yesterday. they made an interesting point and said something like "well, in any election, when someone wins...they feel that the people voted for them for the reasons they themselves wanted people to vote for them" he cited clintons medicare "mandate" and the current iraq policy as being two issues that seem to fall under that category.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: yllus
Polls go up, polls go down. Fact of life. One type of poll matters a little more, though - it comes around every four years or so. Name the winner of that poll!

Trouble with this poll, though, is the % of people believing the Iraq war was justified has been steadily declining.

That's going to make it harder for the PNAC neocons to pull the wool over the public's eye for the next planned invasion.

 

[conjur]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/.../A20795-2005Jan19.html

Dangerous Times?

The BBC reports: "More than half of people surveyed in a BBC World Service poll say the re-election of US President George W Bush has made the world more dangerous.

"Only three countries -- India, Poland and the Philippines -- out of 21 polled believed the world was now safer.

"The survey found that 47% of the 21,953 people questioned now see US influence in the world as largely negative, and view Americans negatively as well.

"None of the countries polled supported contributing their troops to Iraq."

Here are some of the poll results.

The Great Uniter



:roll:

 

[aidanjm]

Originally posted by: BBond

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: glenn1
While I suppose the headline of this poll is an interesting factoid, I find it hard to see its relevance. Fact is that we did invade Iraq, so whether people now think it was a good idea or not is kinda moot. Now the second question about the speed of troop withdrawal is certainly food for thought, since that's something which hasn't yet been decided so public opinion on the matter is definitely more useful.

It is indeed revelant when Bushie just told the American people that his win in the election ratified his policy in Iraq. The numbers above refute that heavily. They may have chosen that @sshole again, but that doesn't mean that they RATIFY all of the @sshat's policies, especially Iraq.

Along with telling America their vote for him ratified his fraudulent Iraq invasion the arrogant imbecile also said any and all fault, blame, and or mistakes re: his underlings culpability is not null and void.

He thinks because he won an election that everything he and his minions did in life up to that point is now forgiven and accountability, while never a component of his administration, is nonetheless now over.

What hubris.

Hopefully at some point over the next 4 years this a$$hole will be impeached.

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: yllus
Polls go up, polls go down. Fact of life. One type of poll matters a little more, though - it comes around every four years or so. Name the winner of that poll!

Yep. I guess it matters more to be re-elected than to be truthful on a WAR. People are starting to see this war for what it is...a big FVCKING BUSHSHIT SCAM.

Nice spin. The people aren't discovering anything new or becoming more jaded by the day. As I said, polls go up, polls go down. If the country was run by poll, it would never have put itself together. Voters are notoriously fickle.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: aidanjm

Originally posted by: BBond

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: glenn1
While I suppose the headline of this poll is an interesting factoid, I find it hard to see its relevance. Fact is that we did invade Iraq, so whether people now think it was a good idea or not is kinda moot. Now the second question about the speed of troop withdrawal is certainly food for thought, since that's something which hasn't yet been decided so public opinion on the matter is definitely more useful.

It is indeed revelant when Bushie just told the American people that his win in the election ratified his policy in Iraq. The numbers above refute that heavily. They may have chosen that @sshole again, but that doesn't mean that they RATIFY all of the @sshat's policies, especially Iraq.

Along with telling America their vote for him ratified his fraudulent Iraq invasion the arrogant imbecile also said any and all fault, blame, and or mistakes re: his underlings culpability is not null and void.

He thinks because he won an election that everything he and his minions did in life up to that point is now forgiven and accountability, while never a component of his administration, is nonetheless now over.

What hubris.

Hopefully at some point over the next 4 years this a$$hole will be impeached.

http://www.impeachbush.org/

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: yllus

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: yllus
Polls go up, polls go down. Fact of life. One type of poll matters a little more, though - it comes around every four years or so. Name the winner of that poll!

Yep. I guess it matters more to be re-elected than to be truthful on a WAR. People are starting to see this war for what it is...a big FVCKING BUSHSHIT SCAM.

Nice spin. The people aren't discovering anything new or becoming more jaded by the day. As I said, polls go up, polls go down. If the country was run by poll, it would never have put itself together. Voters are notoriously fickle.

No spin from my end. I posted that to back up my OP and subtitle. The poll is a downward slope. If he thinks that people ratified his Iraq policy simply because he won a simple majority of votes, then he is full of sh!t (which he is).

Well see how the poll looks after the Iraq elections. They go smooth, poll goes up in his favor. They go badly, drops like a rock.

Give them their goddamn elections and start the pullout. Let them start to defend their own goddamn country and not the US, which should NOT HAVE BEEN THERE TO BEGIN WITH. MORE SECURE MY ASS!

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: yllus
Polls go up, polls go down. Fact of life. One type of poll matters a little more, though - it comes around every four years or so. Name the winner of that poll!

Yep. I guess it matters more to be re-elected than to be truthful on a WAR. People are starting to see this war for what it is...a big FVCKING BUSHSHIT SCAM.

Way too late though.

We deserve all the 's we get because of the Fearless Liar and his Lemmings.

 

[SuperTool]

Looks like neoconservatism is headed for the ash-heap of history. Can't say It'll be very missed.

 

[jpeyton]

Good to see support for the war dropping steadily lower. The upcoming election violence won't help one bit. :thumbsup: