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Gallup Poll: Americans Support War Against Iraq

Aired September 16, 2002 - 14:36   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush has been seeking domestic support for his policy of a regime change in Iraq. But just where do the American people stand?
Let's bring in Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup poll. He joins us live from Princeton, New Jersey.

It's a good point. We've heard from every leader.

Frank, what are the American people telling you?

FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Well, in democracy. you're asking exactly the right question. What do the people think? And I think sometimes we lose sight of the very basic questions. That is because we have a lot of contingency questions that float around: What about if this or if that?

So I went back and looked back at every recent poll I could find to try to ask just the basic question, see when those were asked, if they would oppose military action in Iraq. When we do that, we've got seven recent polls, including a couple just released over this weekend. All of them show majority support from the people for the idea of military action in Iraq. We go all the way from 58 percent, that's what our latest CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup Poll showed up to 68 percent. Both polls, ABC and Newsweek, had it at 60 percent. Again no question, Kyra, majority support on the basic question of military action in Iraq.

PHILLIPS: What about going back to 1990, the Persian Gulf War? Is there a similarity among the people between now and then?

NEWPORT: Yes, indeed there is and in fact support now for the idea of military action is actually higher in many ways than our Gallup polling that we took back then. Here's an example from December of 1990. And by then, you know, we had hundreds of thousands of allied troops already in the staging areas in Saudi Arabia. We asked the question then and it was 53 percent support for military action. A little lower back then than actually it is right now.

PHILLIPS: What about the perspectives of Democrats and Republicans?

NEWPORT: There are partisan differences. We saw it this weekend. The Democratic leaders had a different spin than the Republican leaders on the talk shows over the weekend. Now we asked rank and file Americans what they think, break it down by partisanship, you can see 77 percent of Republicans, it is lower for independents, and finally, when you get over here to Democrats, it is just 40 percent who support the issue. So naturally, there are big differences, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: What about the Congress? Does the public want Congress involved?

NEWPORT: Absolutely. And I think we lose sight of that fact that despite the support for the idea, their representatives, i.e. Congressmen and -women, representatives, senators should be involved. Our last poll found 69 percent said yes, there should be a congressional resolution, a Newsweek poll this weekend had 85 percent saying it was important that Congress be involved. So the people are saying yes to their representatives getting involved in this.

PHILLIPS: Do Americans really understand why the government is considering a war against Iraq? Is there a clear understanding here?

NEWPORT: I think so, Kyra. I have looked a lot of questions and two come to the top: out of all of the reasons that pollsters have arbored the American public, and this is one example that we had from the last poll. One is weapons of mass destruction. The other is the fact that Saddam Hussein supports terrorism. Those are the big two. And all of the other reasons that we tested simply aren't nearly as important as those two. That the American public buys in to those arguments And I think that's the rationale the public uses, after that support level we showed you a few minutes ago -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Great information. Frank, thanks.

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