Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Majority of Americans SayMilitary Action in IraqWas Wrong, Poll Finds

Majority of Americans Say
Military Action in Iraq
Was Wrong, Poll Finds

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
October 25, 2005

A new Harris Interactive poll shows American sentiment about the situation in Iraq remains generally gloomy, with fewer than a quarter of Americans saying they are confident U.S. policies in Iraq will be successful.

For the first time, a majority of Americans (53%) feels that military action in Iraq was the wrong thing to do, according to the survey of 1,833 U.S. adults, compared with 34% who feel it was right.

At the same time, 66% of U.S. adults now say President Bush is doing a "poor" or "only fair" job of handling Iraq, while 32% say he is doing an "excellent" or "pretty good" job. That's little changed from a September Harris poll that found 65% rated Mr. Bush negatively and 34% rated him positively.

BUSH'S IRAQ RATING
[map]
See a related Harris poll chart on Bush's handling of Iraq.

Sixty-one percent of Americans say they aren't confident U.S. policies in Iraq will be successful, slightly higher than 59% who lacked confidence in September. Additionally, only 19% of Americans surveyed believe the situation for U.S. troops in Iraq is improving, while 44% believe it is getting worse.

U.S. adults are split on where things are headed in Iraq: 38% believe things there are moving in the right direction, while another 38% believe they're moving in the wrong direction and 24% aren't sure.

See the full results of the Harris poll: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113017755613077776-8ms0juiXuh4y3XrvAf9qXXtbheI_20061025.html?mod=blogs

No comments: