Americans’ doubts grow on Iraq war
WASHINGTON – President Bush delivers a prime-time address tonight to a public that is increasingly doubtful of his justifications for going to war in Iraq and wants a timetable set for U.S. troops to come home – a step Bush has ruled out.
Just one in three Americans now say the United States and its allies are winning the war, according to a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday. That is a new low, down 9 percentage points since February. Half say neither side is winning.
Bush will try to reassure Americans and rally support in a televised speech at 8 p.m. Eastern from Fort Bragg in North Carolina, home of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. He is marking the first anniversary of the transfer of power from the U.S.-led coalition to an Iraqi government.
Since then, Iraqis have held elections and begun the process of writing a constitution. But establishing security has proved elusive, and nearly 140,000 U.S. troops remain on dangerous duty there.
“The continuing violence and American casualties underline the fact that the president has not accomplished what he set out to accomplish, and it’s taking a lot longer and many more lives and more money than any American expected,” says Richard Eichenberg, a political scientist at Tufts University in Massachusetts who has studied public opinion on Iraq. “That is a recipe for losing political support.”
By a record 61 percent to 37 percent, those surveyed say the president doesn’t have a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq.
Bush’s job-approval rating has suffered, too. His approval rating is 45 percent, equaling the lowest of his presidency. At 53 percent, his disapproval rating has reached a new high.
The survey of 1,009 adults was taken in the days after high-profile Senate hearings in which Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was grilled. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina warned Rumsfeld that “in the most patriotic state I can imagine, people are beginning to question” the war.
Rumsfeld’s favorable-unfavorable rating slipped to 46 percent to 44 percent, the first time during his tenure that he hasn’t been seen positively by a majority outside the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Bush has succeeded in persuading Americans that a stable government in Iraq is important for the United States. Ninety-three percent say it’s important; two of three call it extremely or very important.
Even so, 51 percent want a timetable set and followed for removing troops from Iraq regardless of the situation there. There is also growing skepticism about the president’s core argument that the Iraq war is a crucial part of protecting Americans from terrorists:
— For the first time, a plurality of Americans, by 50 percent-47 percent, sees the war in Iraq as a separate action from the war on terrorism.
— By 46 percent to 43 percent, a plurality says the war in Iraq has made the U.S. less safe from terrorism.
By 53 percent to 46 percent, Americans say the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq. That’s the highest level of discontent since the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib prison scandals last summer.