Poll Shows Weakened Public Support for War with Iraq in US

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 23, 2003

Poll Shows Weakened Public Support for War with Iraq in US

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The US public is increasingly skeptical about military action against Iraq, with seven in 10 people would give UN weapons inspectors months more to pursue their arms search, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll released Wednesday showed.

In addition to the growing doubt about a possible US war against Iraq, the poll found that a majority of Americans disapproved of President Geoge W. Bush's handling of the economy for the first time in his presidency.

Overall, support for Bush has dropped to levels not seen since before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with 59 percent of Americans approving of his work. Thought it is still a comfortablelevel of popularity, Bush's overall standing, buoyed by the 71 percent who approve of his work against terrorism, masks deepeningconcerns about his economic and foreign policies.

On the economy, 53 percent of Americans disapproved of the job Bush has done. Only a quarter of Americans described the economy as excellent or good, down 10 points from December.

Support for Bush's remedy for the economy, a 670-billion-dollartax cut unveiled earlier this month, has drawn lukewarm support. Most Americans -- 61 percent -- perceive that it benefits the wealthy, compared with 9 percent who think it helps the middle class or the poor and 23 percent who said it treats all equally.

By a margin of 7 percentage points, Americans opposed the cornerstone of Bush's proposal, the elimination of the tax on stock dividends. By more than 2 to 1, respondents said they would rather have more spending on education, health care and Social Security than a tax cut, and a sizable majority said they would rather the money be used to balance the federal budget.

On Iraq, 57 percent of Americans back military action, down from 62 percent in mid-December; similarly, 50 percent of Americans said they approved of Bush's handling of the Iraqi situation, down from 58 percent a month ago.

Such levels of support are far below the near-unanimous supportfor an attack against Afghanistan; support for that operation exceeded 90 percent in the weeks before military action began.

The survey found Americans evenly split on whether Bush has presented enough evidence against Iraq. Fifty-eight percent said they would like to see more evidence, and 71 percent said the United States should make public its own evidence if the UN inspectors can't find hard evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

In one clear sign of public caution on Iraq, 43 percent of respondents said the UN inspectors should have as much time as they like to scour Iraq. A quarter said the inspectors should have"a few months" or more. Another quarter supported a deadline of a few weeks or less for the inspections.

The result was released one day after Bush voiced frustration at calls from France and other nations to allow more time for diplomacy and UN weapons inspections.

The poll showed that the doubts about Bush's Iraq policy are broad and deep, The Washington Post said Wednesday. In barely a month, Bush's performance rating on Iraq has dropped 16 percentagepoints, to 42 percent, among young people 18 to 30 years old. Overall opposition to the war also increased among virtually everydemographic group.

The Post-ABC poll is based on telephone interviews with 1,133 randomly selected adults conducted from Jan. 16 to Jan. 20. Marginof sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

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