← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Centinel
Thread ID: 4495 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2003-01-17
2003-01-17 10:40 | User Profile
From The Associated Press, available online at: [url=http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1042715061952&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037]http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...ol=968705899037[/url]
**U.S. public not sold on Iraq war: poll
More than half say Bush hasn't made a case for invasion**
January 16, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) - President George W. Bush has not yet convinced Americans that war with Iraq is justified, a major poll finds, suggesting the White House has much work to do to win public support for military force.
"I think a little more diplomacy would be in order," said Creig Crippen, an 84-year-old retired air force veteran from Deland, Fla.
There is widespread support for removing Saddam Hussein, but that support is conditional on proof of a threat from Iraq and on the support of allies, said the poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The poll was released Thursday as the United Nations said it had discovered empty chemical warheads south of Baghdad.
Two-thirds or more in the Pew poll and other recent polls say they favour military action against Iraq - but only under certain circumstances.
For example, the Pew poll suggests that support for war is strong, 76 per cent, if United Nations inspectors find nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. The support is evenly split if they find no such weapons but determine Iraq has the ability to make these weapons.
The public doesn't buy the administration's argument that Iraq must prove it does not have these weapons. Almost two-thirds, 63 per cent, said that would not be a sufficient reason for a war.
More than half, 53 per cent, say the president has not yet explained clearly what's at stake to justify the United States using military force to end Saddam's rule, according to the poll. About 42 per cent say he has.
The number who say Bush has clearly explained what's at stake has eroded since his September address to the United Nations, when it was 52-37 saying he had.
The Pew poll of 1,218 adults was taken Jan. 8-12 and has an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points.
"I believe that this is an action that is due because of Saddam Hussein's complete lack of respect for the democratic world and his people," said Philip Pederson, 65, a sales manager from Wheatland, Calif., and a Vietnam War veteran.
Although Bush has been making his case against Iraq in earnest since last September, White House officials say the hard work doesn't begin until Jan. 28, when Bush delivers his State of the Union address. That's one day after UN weapons inspectors issue their preliminary report.
The drumbeat for war will continue Jan. 31, when Bush meets at Camp David with his staunchest anti-Iraq ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair. If Bush chooses to go to war, whenever that might be, there would be a final, Oval Office address in which he would spell out reasons, White House officials say.
Democratic legislators like Senator Carl Levin caution that the United States "must not prejudge the outcome" of the inspections.
Some in the public will be skeptical no matter what the president tells them about Iraq.
"I think they've made it very clear," said 23-year-old Rachel Wheatley of Washington, "that they're not really interested in what the inspectors have to say."
2003-01-17 13:40 | User Profile
Accrording to my own poll among my circle of association, there is general agreement that when Bush and/or Rumsfield are in public attempting to rationalize and/or justify this massive and costly American military mobilization, they sound like non-sensical circus clowns.