>Britain admits there may be no WMD's in Iraq
Post-ABC News Poll Poll: More Say War Justified Without Finding Weapons
Washington Post - April 5, 2003
Poll: More Say War Justified Without Finding Weapons
By Richard Morin and Claudia Deane
A growing majority of Americans believe the war in Iraq is justified even if the United States does not find weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, public optimism about the progress of the fighting has surged as recent gains on the battlefield have eased fears that the allies will become bogged down in a long and costly war, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The survey found that more than nine out of 10 Americans believe the war is going well. Nearly half -- 47 percent -- said the conflict is going "very well," up 13 percentage points in a week.
But that upbeat assessment could just as quickly become more guarded, the survey suggested. Eight in 10 Americans see a hard and bloody battle immediately ahead as U.S. troops mass outside Baghdad for what may be the showdown with forces loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
"I think they'll probably get into chemical warfare," said Marlene Montgomery, 56, a homemaker who lives in Portsmouth, Ohio. "And I think they'll get into a battle, heavy. But I think they're prepared."
More than two-thirds of those interviewed -- 69 percent -- said that going to war with Iraq was the right thing to do even if the United States fails to turn up biological or chemical weapons, up from 53 percent in a survey taken the day after the war started.
President Bush has repeatedly said Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, a claim that was central to the administration's rationale for going to war. So far, allied forces have not found any chemical or biological weapons, although they have found large Iraqi stores of special clothing used to protect soldiers from chemical or biological agents.
But the poll and follow-up interviews with some survey participants suggested that relatively few Americans are disturbed that no hard evidence that Iraq currently possesses these weapons has yet surfaced. Many said they would not be bothered if none was ever found.
"I would not feel that I had been sold a bill of goods by the Bush administration," said Brad Stephens, 27, a law student living in Morgantown, W.Va. "I think the guy [Hussein] is a threat. If nothing else, he's paying the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. That alone is enough to show his militant stance toward the West."
But others worry what the rest of the world will think of the United States if no hard evidence of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons is uncovered.
The war "will seem like an overzealous act on the part of the United States and Britain if we don't find anything," said Kevin Scollans, 60, an engineer who lives in Denville, N.J. "I would feel a lot better if we do, being that I support the war. I think it will leave a lot less questions to be answered."
The survey also found that overall support for the war remains strong. Three in four Americans approve of the decision to invade Iraq and 58 percent strongly support the conflict -- figures that have not changed since the war broke out more than two weeks ago.
Bush's overall job approval rating continues to rise and now stands at 71 percent, its highest level since late last summer. A majority of Americans -- 54 percent -- strongly approve of the job Bush is doing as president, up 16 points in a month and higher than at any time in more than a year.
A total of 511 randomly selected adults were interviewed Thursday night for this Post-ABC News poll. Margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 5 percentage points.
One in four Americans continue to oppose the war in Iraq, a proportion that has not fluctuated despite shifting views of the coalition's progress. Democrats remain the most divided in their support: 52 percent said they backed the war, while 42 percent opposed it. In contrast, 95 percent of Republicans are behind the invasion.
Peter Baish, 23, a graphic designer in Fairfax, is one of the opponents. "It seemed to me anyway that there is no clear link between Iraq and terrorism, and that seemed like one of the reasons the administration was using as a justification," Baish said. "I do feel oil plays a big part. I don't want to be cynical, but it seems pretty obvious to me that by getting Iraq into some kind of democracy and having them more economically tied to us, it will be a huge benefit."
Overall, the poll found that fears that the war with Iraq will be long and bloody have ebbed in the past week. Less than half of all Americans -- 44 percent -- now expect the war to last months, down from 57 percent last week. And the proportion that anticipates a significant number of additional casualties has fallen from 82 percent to 69 percent.
And while a majority of Americans say the Iraqi resistance is about what they expected, the proportion that say enemy soldiers are putting up a tough fight has declined in the past week from 28 percent to 17 percent.
"Actually I think it's going really, really well," said Alan Nealley, 34, a high school teacher who lives in Sonoma, Calif. "Going into the war, I was expecting to have really high casualties from this one. I've been kind of relieved that the number of casualties has been as few as it has been."
Nearly two in three -- 63 percent -- said they believe that U.S. military leaders did not underestimate the difficulty of the war, while 33 percent disagreed. The public was somewhat more critical of the Bush administration: 57 percent said administration officials had not miscalculated how hard it would be to defeat the Iraqis while 39 percent said they had.