Approval for Handling of War in Iraq Jumps

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- A new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll suggests that last Sunday's dramatic capture of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein changed some of the ways in which Americans view the situation in Iraq, but did not affect others. There has been a significant increase in approval of the way the war in Iraq is being handled, but there has been little change in the already high level of support for the overall strategy of involvement in Iraq in the first place. At this time, a clear majority of Americans say that U.S. involvement in Iraq is worth it and that the United States is handling the situation there well. Additionally, a smaller majority of Americans say that the Bush administration has a clear plan for handling the situation, and that the United States should either increase the number of troops in Iraq or keep them at the current levels.

Approval for Way the War Is Being Handled Increases to 65%

Americans give the administration and military more credit now for the way in which the war is being waged than they did before Hussein's capture. This is not surprising; the capture represented a well-executed military and intelligence operation and was decidedly different from the news accounts of terrorist attacks and uprisings to which the American public had been exposed in recent months.

In a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Dec. 15-16, after Hussein's capture, there was a 19-percentage-point jump in the number of Americans who approved of the way the United States has handled the situation in Iraq since the major fighting ended -- from 46% in early December to 65% now.

Do you approve or disapprove of the way the U.S. has handled the situation with Iraq since the major fighting ended in April?

 

		Approve	Disapprove	No opinion
		%	%	%
2003 Dec 15-16		65	34	1
2003 Dec 5-7		46	51	3
2003 Nov 14-16 ^		42	55	3
2003 Oct 24-26 ^		47	50	3
2003 Apr 22-23 ^ †		80	18	2
^	WORDING: Do you approve or disapprove of the way the U.S. has handled the situation with Iraq since the major fighting ended?
†	Based on a half sample.

Additionally, slightly more than half of Americans now say they believe the Bush administration has a "clear plan" for handling the situation in Iraq, which is significantly higher than what was measured in late August and early September, when this question was last asked.

Do you think the Bush administration does -- or does not -- have a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq?

 

	Yes, does	No, does not	No opinion
	%	%	%
2003 Dec 15-16	51	45	4
2003 Sep 8-10	40	59	1
2003 Aug 25-26	44	54	2

Basic Level of Support for War Unchanged

Despite these changes in the public's views of the way in which the war in Iraq is being executed, the capture of Hussein produced little change in the public's underlying level of support for the war. Sixty-one percent of Americans now say that the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over, virtually the same as the support level in Gallup's Dec. 5-7 poll, or in the one-day poll conducted on Dec. 14, just after news of the capture had become public.

It's important to note that the responses to this question had grown increasingly positive even before the capture of Hussein, moving from 50% in September to 59% in early December. This pre-capture increase in positivity could have been, at least in part, a classic rally effect in reaction to increased attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq (that is, the public getting its resolve up in reaction to the insurgent action) and/or in part a positive reaction to Bush's well-publicized Thanksgiving Day trip to visit troops in Baghdad.

All in all, do you think the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over, or not?

 

		Worth going to war	Not worth going to war	No opinion
		%	%	%
2003 Dec 15-16 ^		61	35	4
2003 Dec 14 †‡		62	33	5
2003 Dec 5-7		59	39	2
2003 Nov 14-16		56	42	2
2003 Nov 3-5 ^		54	44	2
2003 Oct 24-26		54	44	2
2003 Oct 6-8 ^		55	44	1
2003 Sep 19-21		50	48	2
2003 Sep 8-10		58	40	2
2003 Aug 25-26		63	35	2
2003 Jul 25-27		63	34	3
2003 Jul 18-20		63	35	2
2003 Jun 27-29		56	42	2
2003 Apr 14-16 †		73	23	4
2003 Apr 9 †‡		76	19	5
2003 Apr 7-8 †		67	30	3
2003 Mar 24-25 ^ †		68	29	3
2003 Jan 3-5 ^ †		53	42	5
^	Asked of a half sample.
†	WORDING: All in all, do you think the current situation in Iraq is worth going to war over, or not?
‡	Polls conducted entirely in one day, such as this one, are subject to additional error or bias not found in polls conducted over several days.

A question worded slightly differently asked Americans if they approved of "the decision to go to war with Iraq in March of this year" produced similar results (61% approval), which again was unchanged from what was found in early December.

Do you approve or disapprove of the United States' decision to go to war with Iraq in March of this year?

 

	Approve	Disapprove	No opinion
2003 Dec 15-16	61%	37	2
2003 Dec 5-7	60%	39	1

Level of U.S. Troops in Iraq

For a number of months now, Gallup has asked the public for its views on what should happen to the level of U.S. troops in Iraq. Generally speaking, the majority of Americans have either advocated keeping the troop levels as they are now, or withdrawing some, but not all troops.

There has been little substantial change in these perceptions in the most recent "post-capture" poll conducted Dec. 15-16.

There appears to be a slightly higher percentage of Americans who advocate keeping troop levels as they are now, and compared to the early December poll, a lower number who want to send more troops. But from a broader perspective, the trends on this question do not show major change. In both December polls, more Americans advocated keeping troop levels the same or increasing them than advocated withdrawing troops. As can be seen, these sentiments were significantly different in October, when a majority of Americans advocated withdrawing some or all troops.

 

Was Hussein Personally Involved in the Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks?

There has been an increase in the number of Americans who feel that Hussein was personally involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, from 43% in September to 53% today. The level of agreement with this supposition is now similar to what it was in March of this year and in August 2002, when the question was first asked this way. The drop in September may have been a reaction to President Bush's public statement that Hussein was probably not involved in the attacks.

Do you think Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the September 11^th terrorist attacks, or not?

 

		Yes, was involved	No, was not	No opinion
		%	%	%
2003 Dec 15-16 ^		53	42	5
2003 Sep 19-21		43	50	7
2003 Mar 14-15 ^		51	41	8
2002 Aug 19-21 ^		53	34	13
^	Asked of a half sample.

The current poll also shows that a majority of the American public believes that the war with Iraq has made the United States safer from terrorism. This is one of the key Bush administration arguments for the basic U.S. involvement in the fighting in Iraq, and one that has been, at least indirectly, refuted by Democratic front-runner former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

The level of agreement with this argument is up now compared to polling conducted in October and November, and is essentially where it was in April of this year, just as the fighting in Iraq was winding down.

Do you think the war with Iraq has made the U.S. safer -- or less safe -- from terrorism?

 

		Safer	Less safe	NO CHANGE (vol.)	No opinion
		%	%	%	%
2003 Dec 15-16 ^		56	33	9	2
2003 Nov 14-16		48	43	7	2
2003 Oct 24-26		45	43	10	2
2003 Apr 22-23		58	33	8	1
2003 Apr 10 †		51	37	9	3
Volunteered response (vol.)
^	Based on a half sample.
†	Polls conducted entirely in one day, such as this one, are subject to additional error or bias not found in polls conducted over several days.

Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,000 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Dec. 15-16, 2003. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Which comes closest to your view about what the U.S. should now do about the number of U.S. troops in Iraq -- [ROTATED: the U.S. should send more troops to Iraq, the U.S. should keep the number of troops as it is now, the U.S. should withdraw some troops from Iraq, (or) the U.S. should withdraw all of its troops from Iraq]?

 

	Send more troops	Keep as it is now	Withdraw some troops	Withdraw all troops	No opinion
2003 Dec 15-16	14	40	27	15	4
2003 Dec 5-7	22	33	25	17	3
2003 Nov 3-5 ^	17	32	29	19	3
2003 Oct 24-26 ^	14	27	39	18	2
2003 Aug 25-26 ^	15	36	32	14	3
^ WORDING: Which comes closest to your view about what the U.S. should now do about the number of U.S. troops in Iraq -- [ROTATED: the U.S. should send more troops to Iraq, the U.S. should keep the number of troops as it is now, the U.S. should begin to withdraw some troops from Iraq, (or) the U.S. should withdraw all of its troops from Iraq]?