Poll: US Pessimistic over Iraq

A new poll from the Pew Research Center for People and the Press:

Optimism about the prospect for establishing democracy in Iraq has declined sharply. Fewer than half of Americans (49%) now say that the U.S. is likely to succeed in establishing a stable democratic government in Iraq, down from 57% in December and 55% as recently as last month.

As the third anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq approaches, public support for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq has reached its lowest point and assessments of progress there have turned significantly more negative than they were just a few months ago. Americans used such terms as “a mess,” “chaos,” “terrible,” “sad,” and “disaster” when asked to describe the situation in a single word.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March 8-12 among 1,405 Americans, also finds:

● A sharp rise in the number of Americans who believe the U.S. is “losing ground” in preventing a civil war among the country’s religious and ethnic groups. Two-thirds (66%) say the U.S. is losing ground in preventing a civil war in Iraq, up from 48% in January.

● Half of the public says that the U.S. should bring its troops home from Iraq as soon as possible, compared with 44% who say we should remain until the situation has stabilized. The number favoring an immediate withdrawal is up only slightly from January (48%), but represents the highest measure of support for a troop pullout since the war began.

● Seven-in-ten now believe that President Bush lacks a clear plan for ending the war successfully, the highest number expressing that view in surveys dating to September 2003. Fully 89% of Democrats and 79% of independents believe Bush lacks a clear plan on resolving the conflict, but 40% of Republicans share this opinion.