Survey Shows Skepticism About Iraq

Survey Shows Skepticism About Iraq
Most Americans Polled Don't Believe Conflict Is Key Fight in War on Terrorism
By Dana Milbank and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 5, 2003; Page A13


Only one in seven Americans agrees with President Bush's assertion that the conflict in Iraq is the most important fight in the war on terrorism, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Since Sept. 7, when Bush addressed the nation to build support for the war in Iraq, he and his aides have described Iraq as "the central front" in the war on terrorism. "We will fight this war against terror until it is won," Bush said recently in one typical speech. "We are fighting on many fronts. Iraq is now the central front."

But the poll found that, although 61 percent of the respondents believe Iraq is part of the war on terrorism, just 14 percent think it is the "most important" part.

This doubt -- shared by some experts in military strategy -- poses a potential problem for Bush, because it indicates that a large majority of Americans disagrees with his main argument for justifying the continuing occupation of Iraq, which has proven costlier and bloodier than was generally predicted before the war. Experts in public opinion say it may explain why support for Bush's policies on Iraq has sagged.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A857-2003Nov4.html

"But a number of defense experts reject the president's notion of the role of Iraq in the campaign against terrorism. "I think the 'central front' idea is just crazy," said Michael Vickers, a former CIA officer who is now an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. On Sept. 11, 2001, he said, "we weren't hit from Iraq." Also, he said that while he thinks "we have to prevail in Iraq . . . I can imagine winning the global war on terrorism without winning Iraq, just like you could win the Cold War without winning in Vietnam."

So far, the public seems to lean in that direction. Independent pollster John Zogby said that, in making Iraq the "central front" against terrorism, Bush "has been taking what has been a policy problem and turned it into a public relations problem, and it doesn't look like people are buying that."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A857-2003Nov4.html

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