American Support for War Inches Up

American support for the war in Iraq has risen somewhat as the White House has continued to ask the public to reserve judgment about the war until General David Petraeus files his report in the fall.

In a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted over the weekend, 42 percent of Americans said taking military action in Iraq was the right thing to do, while 51 percent said the United States should have stayed out of Iraq.

Support had been at all time low in May, when only 35 percent of Americans said the United States’ involvement in Iraq was the right thing and 61 percent said the United States should have stayed out.

Still, the latest poll made clear that a two-thirds majority of Americans continue to say the war is going badly. However, the number of people who say the war is going “very badly” has fallen from 45 percent earlier in July to a current reading of 35 percent, and of those who say it is going well, 29 percent now describe it as “somewhat well” compared to 23 percent just last week.

At the end of a week that included a contentious Senate debate leading to an all-night session, Americans have a low opinion of Congress. Six in 10 Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing in general. When asked specifically about their opinions of how the Democrats and Republicans in Congress are handling the war, disapproval ratings are similar — 65 percent disapprove of the way the Republicans have handled it, and 59 percent disapprove of the Democrats.

The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Friday through Sunday with 889 adults. The margin of sampling error for all adults is plus or minus 3 percentage points and larger for subgroups.

The modest gains in support for the war in Iraq come at a time when there are new warnings from the Bush Administration about heightened terrorist activity. A majority of Americans say that in the long run, the United States will be safer from terrorism if it stays out of the affairs of countries in the Middle East. But there is a sharp party divide on the issue — 73 percent of Democrats, 60 percent of independents and 28 percent of Republicans agree.

Americans are divided over whether the Bush administration’s discussion of terrorism is out of a genuine concern or if it is a political tool. Half of those polled say members of the Bush Administration talk about the threat of terrorism to gain a political advantage, while 39 percent consider the threat a genuine issue.

News about Iraq has captured Americans’ attention recently with two-thirds of the poll’s respondents reporting that they have paid “a lot” or “some” attention to news about the war in Iraq over the last few weeks. Democrats are paying more attention to Iraq news than are Republicans and independents.