Most Americans see Iraq war as failure * * Email * Print * Normal font * Large font
September 11, 2007 - 9:09AM AdvertisementAdvertisement
Most Americans see the Iraq war as a failure, despite a US build-up of 30,000 troops, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll shows.
The survey was released as General David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, told the US Congress that the surge of 30,000 troops had largely met its military goals and that he can see that by mid 2008, the added forces would be gone. That would leave a force of about 130,000.
Just 36 per cent in the AP poll said the troop increase has helped stabilise Iraq, only slightly more than the 32 per cent who said they thought it would in February as the build-up began. Voicing that view were almost two-thirds of Republicans, about one in seven Democrats and about a third of independents.
In addition, 59 per cent said they believe history will judge the Iraq war as a failure, including 28 per cent who said it would be viewed as a complete failure.
Asked if the United States made a mistake going to war in Iraq in 2003, 57 per cent said yes, about the same number who said so in April.
Most Democrats and independents agreed with those assessments, along with about three in 10 Republicans.
The poll involved telephone interviews with 1,000 adults conducted on Sept 6 to 9. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.