Posted on 08/17/2004 3:07:00 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Nine months of chaos and casualties in Iraq (news - web sites) since Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s capture have taken a heavy toll on American opinion of President Bush (news - web sites)'s decision to go to war. Last December, when Saddam was caught, public support for Bush was 2-to-1 in favor. Now the public is evenly divided on whether the war was the right thing to do or whether it was a mistake.
Older people, minorities, people with lower incomes, residents of the Northeast and Catholics are among those increasingly skeptical of the war effort, according to Associated Press polling.
These shifts in public sentiment reflect the difficulties in Iraq — including a death toll nearing 1,000 U.S. soldiers, the violent insurgency against the new Iraqi government and U.S. forces and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, which was among the central justifications for Bush's decision to go to war.
"It was a mistake," said 73-year-old Mil Jenkinson, a retired schoolteacher and a Democrat from Dickinson, N.D. "There were no weapons of mass destruction. I keep thinking it's not our place to rule the world. Everyone does not think our way of life is the right way.
"It's arrogant of us to go into a country and tell them what kind of government to have."
Both Democrats and independents lost enthusiasm for the war during the period since Saddam was captured. Almost nine in 10 Republicans still say it was the right thing to do.
Overall, about half in an August AP-Ipsos poll said they think the war in Iraq was the right thing to do. But even some of those people have doubts about what has happened since the invasion.
For Jim Adams, a 42-year-old Republican from Plymouth, N.H., the decision to use force in Iraq was right, but the follow-through was lacking.
"I don't think it was a mistake to go there," Adams said. "But we've gone down a slippery slope.
"We had good reason to go based on the evidence at the time, but we've gone in a direction we never intended to go," he said. "We've alienated the population. We wanted the population to embrace our values, and we've done exactly the opposite."
Still, Adams says he supports President Bush, and thinks he is the best one to handle the situation.
About six in 10 feel President Bush does not have a clear plan for bringing the Iraq situation to a successful solution, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll.
The Bush administration has struggled since December against a violent insurgency in Iraq that has killed soldiers. A flare-up of violence in southern towns in April led to increased combat operations. A cease-fire with one militant group recently fell apart, leading to more clashes in Najaf.
Despite the handover of political power to an Iraqi interim government on June 30, the U.S. military continues to lead the military fight in Iraq.
In addition, U.S. weapons inspectors continue to search but have found no weapons of mass destruction.
In the August poll, those most likely to say the Iraq war was the right thing to do were Republicans, Southerners, those who earn more than $50,000 a year and young adults.
"Iraq was getting out of hand," said Kim Rivers, a 35-year-old Republican who works as a teacher's aide in Champlain, N.Y. "It should have been done a long time ago."
Yet among many different groups of Americans, a majority of people now say the war was a mistake. Those groups include minorities (65 percent), Northeasterners (60 percent), Democrats (80 percent), people who make less than $25,000 a year (57 percent) and Catholics (51 percent).
In December, support for the war was widespread among most groups, although minorities even then were about evenly split on the question.
Last December, for example, 56 percent of seniors said the war in Iraq was the right thing to do and 40 percent disagreed. Now, six in 10 say the Iraq war was wrong.
Looked at in terms of the presidential campaign, almost nine in 10 Bush supporters say going to war in Iraq was the right thing to do, while almost nine in 10 supporters of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (news - web sites) say it was a mistake, according to polls conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs.
While the number dubious about the Iraq war has grown over the past eight months, the number who think the United States must stay until the job is done remains fairly constant. Since spring, just over half in various polls have said they support staying in Iraq until it is stabilized.
The most recent AP-Ipsos poll of 1,001 adults was conducted Aug. 3-5 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, larger for subgroups like older Americans.
In other words...Democrats???
The war is not going bad. Bad would be death toll 10,000 and losing ground every day. People have forgotten why we went to war, they have lost sight of our goals and have been hypnotized by the politics of the left into thinking that it is a mistake to be there.
What did the people expect topple Saddam and then cut and run. These people obviously don't give the war much deep thought.
I believe he can win enough of them back to be re-elected, but the fact that we have let so many of the RAT lies go unanswered for so long has made it much, much tougher.
Mostly the Democrat base. They forget to include the whores, homos, and the dead.
About six in 10 feel President Bush does not have a clear plan for bringing the Iraq situation to a successful solution, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll.
Bush told us many times the war on terror would be a long one. Apparently, someone wasn't listening.
Notice how this reporter talks about all the bad stuff - actually lists all the talking points - and doesn't mention even one good thing? Not even one success in this war on terror?
Biased reporter? Obviously!!
The Democrats are trying to make it look like Iraq has nothing to do with the war on terror. THAT'S what Bush has to clear up for the voters. People have no idea why we're still fighting.
If the Democrats feel they actually believe Iraq has nothing to do with terror, there's one great reason why Kerry is not fit to serve. The military knows exactly what it's doing. They're doing the same thing against terrorists that won us the cold war against the USSR. Communism was big, and so is Radical Islam.
Evenly split?
Id say that was good news since all the polls the press bimbos were hawking said support was in low 40's
The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking, but...
it took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Davidian compound.
That was a 51 day operation.
We've been looking for evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records.
It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick.
It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida!!!!
So, let's see:
1) A high ranking Iraqi fedayeen officer was present during at least one 9/11 planning meeting.
2) John Gibson just said tonight that some Iraqi military soldiers drove two of the 9/11 hijackers to a 9/11 planning meeting.
3) The 9/11 Commission said that Iraq trained AQ terrorists in chemical, biological and nuclear materials.
4) Iraq knew that 9/11 was coming. less than two months before 9/11/01, the state-controlled Iraqi newspaper “Al-Nasiriya” carried a column headlined, “American, an Obsession called Osama Bin Ladin.” (July 21, 2001)
In the piece, Baath Party writer Naeem Abd Muhalhal predicted that bin Laden would attack the US “with the seriousness of the Bedouin of the desert about the way he will try to bomb the Pentagon after he destroys the White House.”
The same state-approved column also insisted that bin Laden “will strike America on the arm that is already hurting,” and that the US “will curse the memory of Frank Sinatra every time he hears his songs” – an apparent reference to the Sinatra classic, “New York, New York”.
And people are still confused or opposed to the war? We raeeeeeeeaeally need a competency test before giving people the right to vote.
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