Americans of every stripe are worried that the U.S. occupation of Iraq could turn into a quagmire, and most are not convinced that President Bush has a clear plan to handle the problem, a Los Angeles Times Poll has found.
But voters’ concerns about the war do not necessarily translate into support for Bush’s Democratic rivals in the 2004 presidential campaign, the poll found. Despite their misgivings, a narrow majority of respondents said they still trust Bush to make the right decisions on Iraq, and a solid majority gave him high marks for his conduct of the war on terrorism.
The rising number of casualties has driven many who supported the invasion of Iraq last spring to question now whether it was worth the cost. Still, a large majority said they support keeping U.S. troops in Iraq at least until order is restored; only about one-fifth said they favor an unconditional withdrawal.
In April, as U.S. forces swept into Iraq, the Times Poll found that 77 percent of the public said they supported the decision to go to war.
But this week, when asked whether it had been worth going to war, only 48 percent said yes; 43 percent said no. Underlying that relatively even split is a marked partisan divide: Only 30 percent of Democrats now say the war was worthwhile, compared with 76 percent of Republicans.
Asked how they felt about the possibility that the United States could become “bogged down” in Iraq, 86 percent of all respondents said they were concerned, and most said they were “very concerned.” But Democrats expressed more concern than Republicans.
Opinions of Bush’s handling of Iraq are even more closely divided and polarized along partisan lines, the poll found.
A narrow majority of all respondents, 53 percent, said they trust Bush and his advisers to make the right decisions on Iraq, as opposed to 41 percent who said they did not. But among Republicans, 86 percent said they trust Bush to make the right decisions; only 27 percent of Democrats agreed.
Likewise, about half of all respondents, 52 percent, said they do not believe Bush has a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq, while 39 percent said he does have a clear plan. But underneath those numbers is another deep partisan divide: 73 percent of Republicans say Bush has a clear plan, but only 19 percent of Democrats agree.
The Times Poll surveyed 1,345 adults from Nov. 15-18; included in the survey were 1,144 registered voters. The margin of error for both groups is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
