by Joseph Carroll
Basic Support for the War
A recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll finds a slight decrease in the percentage of Americans saying it was a mistake to send troops to Iraq. The July 19-21 poll shows that 50% of Americans say it was a mistake, while 47% say it was not. Two previous polls conducted in mid-June and early July each found 54% of Americans saying it was a mistake to send troops to Iraq in view of the recent developments in that country. For the first half of the year, the percentage of Americans who said it was a mistake to send troops to Iraq ranged from 41% to 44%.
More Americans continue to believe the war against Iraq is part of the war against terrorism that began on Sept. 11, 2001, than believe it is not. A slight majority of Americans, 51%, consider the war with Iraq as part of the war on terrorism, while 47% do not. Gallup found similar results for this question in March of this year, but in August 2003 a higher percentage, 57%, thought military action in Iraq was an extension of the war against terror.
Iraq and the Vote for President
Iraq is not the most important issue driving the public's vote for president this year. When given a choice of four issues, 28% of registered voters say the economy will be most important to their votes. Twenty-three percent choose the situation in Iraq, 19% terrorism, and 16% healthcare.
George W. Bush and John Kerry on Iraq
When the public is asked who would do a better job of handling the situation in Iraq, by a 49% to 44% margin, Americans say George W. Bush rather than John Kerry. The current results show Bush gaining some support on the Iraq issue over Kerry since mid-June, when 47% said Bush and 46% Kerry.
The poll also asked Americans, separately, if Bush and Kerry have a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq. The results show that 45% of Americans say Bush has a clear plan for handling Iraq, while a majority of Americans, 54%, say he does not. (One percent of Americans do not have an opinion about Bush's plans for Iraq.) A third of Americans, 33%, say Kerry has a clear plan, while a majority of Americans, 56%, say Kerry does not have a clear plan. Eleven percent do not have an opinion about whether Kerry has a plan.
Bush enjoys an advantage over Kerry on Iraq despite a growing perception that he was not entirely truthful about the reasons for going to war in Iraq. Forty-five percent of Americans tell Gallup that they believe Bush deliberately misled the public about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, while 52% say he did not. Those are the most negative results since Gallup first asked the question in May 2003, at which time just 31% said Bush misled the public on this issue.