The Iraq War: latest polling results

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MK
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The Iraq War: latest polling results

Postby MK » Wed May 04, 2005 1:17 pm

A little surprised. Even with current troubles, either with insurgents or the elected gov't, I would've guessed support would have grown because the elections got off the ground, and even with low Sunni turnout, having elections with minimal violence is still a big deal. Even with current troubles, new democratic governments rarely go smoothly (see the recent African elections, and the historical background behind those elections going back 10-15 years), so the current bickering is hardly a surprise, even if it does still suck.

I didn't agree with the main arguments going into war (there were questions about the intelligence, like the aluminum tubes, already reported in the mainstream press before war was declared), but the fringe arguments about doing it as a humanitarian mission did carry some weight with me. Yeah, it would've still been bullshit coming from Bush who said in the 2000 campaign that he still wouldn't have sent troops to Rwanda during the genocide (plus despite Powell's efforts, Bush didn't make much of a push for doing something about Sudan). And it would've seem more so after the prison-abuse scandal and current questions about torture. But in the long-run, it would've had the most credibility.

Wed May 4, 8:38 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of Americans do not think it was worth going to war in Iraq with support at the lowest level since the United States launched the invasion in 2003, according to a CNN/USAToday/Gallup poll released on Tuesday.

Fifty-seven percent of those polled said it was not worth going to war compared to 41 percent who thought it was. In a February poll, 48 percent said the war was worth it and half said it was not.

A poll in April 2003, shortly after the war began, found that 73 percent of Americans held the view that the war was worth fighting. The new poll results had a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.

Asked how things are going for the United States in Iraq, 56 percent said "badly," up from 45 percent in March. Forty-two percent said things were going "well," down from 52 percent in March. The margin of error for that question was plus or minus three percentage points.

Asked whether the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, the respondents were nearly divided with 49 percent saying it was mistake and 48 percent saying it was not. On that question, the margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points.

The telephone poll of 1,006 adults was conducted April 29-May 1.
"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war." – Dwight D. Eisenhower

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