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Gallup Poll: 47 Percent Support Invading Iraq

Aired August 09, 2002 - 14:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In its ongoing push for a regime change in Baghdad, the Bush administration is meeting today with a half dozen Iraq opposition groups. Officials tell CNN one big goal of the meeting with the exiles is to help them do a better job of coordinating their efforts. Vice President Dick Cheney is expected to confer with the groups via satellite tomorrow.
It is widely believed that the White House is not relying on Iraqi dissidents to dislodge Saddam Hussein. But do Americans support another Gulf War, one that few, if any, U.S. allies support.

Frank Newport is live in from the Gallup studio, in Princeton, New Jersey, with some insights.

Hi there, Frank.

FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL: Hello, Fredricka.

In fact, we've reviewed a lot of data over the last 10 years about supporting going back into Iraq, and we found a variance. If you just ask it flat out, you get about 47 percent. If you stay to remove Saddam Hussein, it jumps up 10 or more points.

So we thought we would ask people in the poll we just finished last night, Do you have a clear idea about why the United States is considering moving into Iraq. This number is lower than we thought we might find: It's 56 percent who say yes. That's about 44 percent of Americans who at this point say they really don't understand what the rationale would be for going into Iraq.

There is a partisanship to this. Since it's the Bush administration pushing the idea, you have got 72 percent of Republicans nationally who say they understand. But if you flip over here to Democrats across the country, it is less than half, 45 percent.

Then we followed up, said of that percent, 56 percent who say we know why, we said, All right, tell us, in your own words, why would the United States think about going into Iraq. And these are pretty well formed reasons, I think, now that we looked at them. Reason number one is not to remove Saddam Hussein, but is the fear of biological and chemical weapons. That's obviously permeated its way into the consciousness of Americans. Also the idea that Iraq may be supporting terrorists around the world. That is another 30 percent. Finally, you get down to removing Saddam Hussein per se, and that is only about 16 percent who verbalize that as the reason. The other top reasons are that it represents a threat, that is Iraq, to the United States. And finally, 6 percent mentioned that those weapons inspectors have not been allowed to go into Iraq.

All in all, Fredricka, I would say the public does not quite have as much knowledge as we might have thought they did about why the United States might be wanting to go in, but of those who do, pretty well thought out reasons -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks very much, Frank Newport. Appreciate it for the latest Gallup Poll numbers.

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