WASHINGTON: A solid majority of the US public favours giving the United Nations a greater role in guiding the political future and reconstruction of Iraq despite President George W. Bush’s insistence that Washington exercise virtually total control over both, found a poll released just hours after Bush’s speech to the United Nations on Tuesday.
Seventy per cent of respondents said they support a “significant role” for the UN, while a majority of 51 per cent said the US should be prepared even to give up some military control to the world body in order to get other countries to deploy troops to Iraq, according to the survey of 1,500 people by the Pew Research Centre for People and the Press.
The Bush administration has ruled out relinquishing any control over the military and security aspects of the occupation.
In addition, a growing percentage of the public (44 per cent) want the United Nations, as opposed to Washington (22 per cent), to have the most say in creating a new Iraqi government.
Pew Centre Director Andrew Kohout attributed the results to growing concern over the rising costs and casualties of the US occupation in Iraq.
The poll found that overall public concern was significantly greater than last April, when US troops took control of Baghdad.
The new poll, which was conducted on Sept 17-22, is the latest of a series of surveys that show eroding support for US actions in Iraq and eroding confidence in Bush’s plans there.
A ‘Washington Post’-ABC News poll taken shortly after his Sept 7 speech to the nation about the situation in Iraq and the 87 billion dollars he requested to fund US operations there found that 55 per cent of the public did not believe the president had a clear plan, and a whopping 85 per cent said they were concerned about Washington getting bogged down in a long and costly mission.
A Zogby poll released late last week found that Bush’s approval rating had fallen to its lowest level since he became president, from 52 per cent as recently as last month to 45 per cent in mid-September, compared to 54 per cent who said they disapproved of his leadership.
Another CBS News poll released at the same time found that Bush’s approval rating for handling Iraq had fallen to 46 per cent, compared to 47 per cent who said they flatly disapproved of his performance there. Two-thirds of respondents in the CBS poll said Congress should not approve the 87-billion-dollar request.
The new Pew poll found much the same level of opposition, with 59 per cent of respondents saying they were opposed to Bush’s request, and 36 per cent saying they supported it. Forty-three per cent said they worry a great deal about whether the country can afford such a price tag, compared to 34 per cent who admitted to similar concerns in April.
Despite the attacks on US forces, the public remains behind the mission, with nearly two-thirds agreeing that Washington should keep its troops in Iraq until a stable government is formed, while one-third said they should be withdrawn as soon as possible.
In addition, 63 per cent said Bush made the right decision in going to war, a figure that has held steady since early August.
Nonetheless, assessments about how well the operation is going have become increasingly negative. A majority of the public believed that the US mission was going “very well” in April; that percentage is now down to 15 per cent.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.