Monday, March 31, 2003

Some interesting poll results:

While the American public has rallied behind President Bush on the Iraq war, two-thirds say the United States should not feel free to use military force in the future without U.N. support, says a new poll.

Three-fourths said they support the president's decision to go to war with Iraq, says the survey. But almost that many, 66 percent, said they don't think the United States should feel free to use force without the backing of the United Nations....

The poll, by the Program for International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, was taken March 22-25 by Knowledge Networks of 795 respondents. It has an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points....

Three in 10 said the United States should govern Iraq after the war, while half said the United Nations should assume that role.

A solid majority, 72 percent, says the United Nations should take the lead in dealing with North Korea. And six in 10 want the international organization to take the lead in monitoring Iran, which contends that its nuclear program is strictly for energy production....


--San Francisco Chronicle

A majority of those who responded to the new [NBC News/Wall Street Journal] poll want the U.S. military to avoid civilian casualties: 56 percent said the military should do all it can to minimize Iraqi civilian casualties, even if it means taking longer to accomplish its objectives. Thirty-eight percent said the military should use whatever force was required to do the job.

More than a quarter of those polled — 28 percent — said that regardless of the force used, the war’s outcome would yield no clear winner. Statistically, it was about the same percentage of Americans that responded to the same question in 1991 — before the end of the first Gulf War, which left Saddam in power.

Perhaps independent of war concerns, Americans concerned about the economic downturn had low marks for Bush’s proposed tax-cut plan: 52 percent said Congress should not pass the plan, compared with 38 percent who said it should be approved.


--MSNBC

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