The poll showed Bush standing has dropped with nearly every age group

NEW YORK, July 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As democrats kept up their pressure on U.S. President George W. Bush for use of dubious intelligence to make the case for the Iraq invasion, a new poll published Monday, July 21, found his popularity mixed in the eyes of Americans.

Some 51 percent of Americans have doubts and reservations about his leadership, with the figure upping from 41 percent in March, according to the poll conducted by Time magazine and CNN broadcaster. 

However, an equal number - 51 percent - believe that Bush is more truthful than most other Presidents, with 56 percent saying that he is more trustworthy than former President Bill Clinton.

And 52 percent say that Bush's handling of Iraq gives them more confidence in his ability to handle Iran, though 48 percent say it gives them confidence he can handle the North Korea situation.

On a broader topic, 55 percent support U.S. policy in Iraq, with 61 percent saying that the United States did the right thing in toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Fifty-four percent also believe the Bush administration did not deliberately mislead the country on an imminent Iraqi nuclear threat - though 41 percent believe there was deliberate deception.

Nevertheless, 55 percent believe it was a bad idea for Bush to say, "Bring them on," about Iraqi resistance to U.S. forces in Iraq.

And just as U.S. officials are speaking more frankly about the fact that the nation faces a prolonged, intense engagement in Iraq, nearly half of Americans, 45%, view the invasion as not being worth the toll it has taken in American lives and other costs.

The President's standing has dropped with nearly every group, but his fall is particularly steep among the young, said Time on its website.

"People like Meg Brohn, 23, of Mount Clemens, Mich., and her sister Caroline, 20. They supported the war, but they can't help noticing how many of those dying are around their age, and that has brought it home to them in a vivid and dismaying way," according to The Time.

"When our troops are being so viciously attacked, it's obvious the Iraqis don't want us over there," Caroline was quoted as saying.

"I don't think we'll ever be able to declare victory," he sister added.

Even other age groups of Americans felt the same dismay that American forces are facing a quagmire in Iraq, with at least one soldier almost being killed every day.

"A lot depends on what happens between now and the election," Mary Holder, 53, owner of a pool hall in Dickinson, Texas, said.

"It doesn't matter to me that we have not found weapons of mass destruction. What matters to me is that our boys are still getting killed. I don't want this turning into another Vietnam where we dump truckloads of money and lives," Holder told Time.

"She voted for Bush three years ago. She's not so sure she will again." Said the magazine.

The TIME/CNN poll was conducted by telephone among 1,004 adults on July 16-17, 2003. The margin of error plus or minus 3.1 percent.

According to a rival poll by Zogby International released Saturday, Bush's approval rating is at nearly its lowest point in his presidency, with just 53 percent of those polled approving of the job he is doing, down from 58 percent a month before.

Democratic Keeps Up Heat

Meanwhile, opposition Democrats kept up their attacks on Bush for dubious claims made in the lead-up to war on Iraq, demanding he takes "some responsibility" and questioning his honesty.

"He should take some responsibility. I don't care how he takes it," said Senator Jay Rockefeller, vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, referring to the subsequently discredited claim Bush made in a key speech in January that Iraq had tried to purchase nuclear materials in Africa.

"Maybe it's through (national security advisor) Condoleezza Rice, maybe it's through somebody else," Rockefeller told Fox News Sunday.

Asked if someone should be fired, he replied: "I don't think it has to come to that."

"You know, the American people trust their leadership," he went on, "but ... they want to be told the truth, and they need to be told the truth.

"It's very important to intelligence to say that facts really do matter, they count, they have to be accurate. Intelligence is the basis now of war-fighting."

Senator Bob Graham, a hopeful Presidential candidate in next year's elections, said Bush must have known the information was considered dubious in U.S. intelligence circles.

"You cannot tell me that the vice President (Dick Cheney) didn't receive the same report that the CIA received, and that the vice President didn't communicate that report to the President or national security advisers to the President.

"So I have to believe that the President knew or should have known that this information had been classified as unreliable by the CIA," he told CBS.

Senior Senator Carl Levin hit out at Bush Saturday in the Democratic response to the President's weekly radio address.

"The statement that Iraq was attempting to acquire African uranium was not an inadvertent mistake. It was negotiated between CIA and National Security Council officials, and it is highly misleading," Levin said.

The key question is "whether administration officials made a conscious and a very troubling decision to create a false impression about the gravity and imminence of the threat that Iraq posed to America," he said.

"Unless we address the objectivity and reliability of US intelligence before the Iraq war, our government's warnings about future security threats will be greeted with skepticism," Levin added.

It will "be more difficult to gain the support of the American people and our allies for any action if they question the credibility of our intelligence," he said.