PIPA BULLETIN: POLLING ON IRAQ October 2-24 (fwd)

["Clement M. Henry" <chenry@mail.la.utexas.edu>]

In class a week or two ago someone said 80% of the American people were
behind Bush for war against Iraq...maybe opinion is changing.

*****************************
Clement M. Henry
Professor of Government
University of Texas at Austin
Austin TX 78712
tel 471-5121, fax 471-1061

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 16:20:46 -0700
From: PIPA <listserv@americans-world.org>
Reply-To: tperrotto@pipa.org
To: PIPA <listserv@americans-world.org>
Subject: PIPA BULLETIN: POLLING ON IRAQ October 2-24

PIPA BULLETIN: POLLING ON IRAQ October 2-24

On October 2 PIPA released a comprehensive analysis of polling on the conflict with Iraq through that date, which appears at:

http://www.americans-world.org/digest/regional_issues/Conflict_Iraq/summary_Iraq.cfm

This new bulletin offers an analysis of seven polls that have been released since then.  It can be found at:

http://www.americans-world.org/articles/BulletinOctnograph.pdf

Key findings are:

-- Consistent with polls prior to October, a strong majority wants to see continued efforts to pursue disarmament of Iraq through weapons inspections rather than military action.  Only a small minority would want to proceed with military action if Iraq cooperates with the inspection process. A plurality feels that the Administration is moving too quickly to use force, rather than pursuing all of its diplomatic options first.

-- Support for invading Iraq has slipped to approximately half, though if the President does proceed three-quarters say they would support him.  Strong majorities continue to support more limited forms of military action.  When high numbers of casualties are assumed, support for military action drops below half.

-- Only a small minority supports invading Iraq without multilateral support. However with multilateral support, a strong majority supports an invasion.

-- Leading up to the vote on giving the President authority, a majority continued to oppose giving the President authority and a slight majority complained that Congress was not asking enough questions.

-- While in recent polling the war on terrorism has generally ranked ahead of Iraq in priority, a new poll shows that, for a plurality, Iraq has pushed ahead. A slim majority thinks it is possible to address both problems simultaneously.  Iraq still ranks low as a concern for voters in this year's elections.

-- The majority of Americans who say they think Saddam Hussein was involved in helping the September 11 terrorists has increased.  Americans are divided, however, over whether the US has offered enough evidence of Iraq's links to terrorism to justify a military campaign.

Americans and the World is developed and maintained by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), a joint program of the Center on Policy Attitudes and the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland at the School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland.

Americans and the World is made possible by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Compton Foundation.

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