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The poll finds that Bush’s job approval rating has fallen
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WASHINGTON,
August 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The percentage of
Americans who favor striking Iraq slipped as only a slight majority of
Americans still favors sending U.S. forces into Iraq to overturn the
regime of Saddam Hussein, according to a poll published Thursday, August
22, by CNN/USA Today/Gallup.
According
to the poll, 53 percent favors U.S. intervention in Iraq while 41
percent opposed it compared with 61 percent in June who approved of
military action compared with 31 percent who did not, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
While
disquiet at the prospect of a war on Iraq has gained ground, U.S. public
opinion is still strongly hostile to the Iraqi president.
Some
86 percent believe Saddam supports terrorist groups, 55 percent say he
has weapons of mass destruction, and 53 percent believe he was
implicated in the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The
Bush administration says that Baghdad has a biological and chemical
weapons program, but has never said Iraq was directly implicated in the
attacks on New York and the Pentagon outside Washington.
The
poll was taken between August 19 and 21, with a plus or minus 3.5
percent margin of error.
According
to an August 13 Washington Post/ABC News poll, more than two thirds of
Americans (69 percent) supported military intervention against Iraq, but
only 54 percent supported it should U.S. allies oppose such an operation
The
size of that majority has dwindled to pre-Sept. 11 levels, the Gallup
Poll found.
The
slide comes amid escalating debate at home and abroad over the wisdom of
a military offensive that could disrupt the flow of oil and other trade,
turn Arab nations against the United States and further inflame Middle
East tensions if Iraq attacked Israel, as it did in the Gulf War of
1991, the U.S. daily newspaper, USA Today, reported.
Several
U.S. allies have warned against going to war with Iraq. In the poll,
most of the Americans who support going to war want it to be with allied
help, the paper said.
Bush
has said his goal in Iraq is “regime change.” White House officials
began talking tougher about using military force last fall, when three
in four Americans backed the idea. Bush called Saddam “evil” and
said his pursuit of “weapons of mass destruction” made him a threat
to the world, USA Today reported.
According
to the paper, since then, analysts inside and outside the government
have suggested that an invasion could be costly in manpower and money,
and Bush is finding the idea a harder sell to the public.
This
week’s poll results come at a time when allies of the United States
expressed new qualms about attacking Iraq, the paper said.
The
poll also finds that Bush’s job approval rating has fallen to 65%,
which is still healthy but is at its lowest level since before September
11, USA Today reported. 
