Public cool to Bush plan

WASHINGTON – Most Americans oppose President Bush’s call to send additional U.S. military forces to Iraq and just over a third say the new plan makes victory there more likely, an initial public rebuke of the strategy he unveiled Wednesday night in a nationally televised address.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted after the president’s speech finds broad and strong opposition to his call to send about 21,500 more troops to Iraq: 61 percent oppose the force increase, with 52 percent “strongly” opposing the buildup. Thirty-six percent support the additional troops; only one-quarter of the public is strongly supportive.

Support for adding troops is somewhat higher among the 42 percent of Americans who tuned in to Bush’s speech. Forty-seven percent of viewers think the increase is a good idea, but the president’s supporters were more likely than others to watch or listen to his remarks. (Seventy-two percent of the public said they saw or heard Bush’s speech when the war began in March 2003.)

The tepid response to the president’s new initiative is due in part to the public’s broad opposition to the war and its skepticism about Bush’s handling of the situation. For more than two years majorities have said the Iraq war wasn’t worth fighting, and by nearly a 2-1 margin Americans disapprove of Bush’s leadership on the issue. The reaction is also based on a dire assessment of the facts on the ground: In this poll, 57 percent, a new high, say the United States is losing the war in Iraq.

With many initially unswayed by the president’s remarks, a narrow majority, 53 percent, think congressional Democrats – controlling House and Senate majorities for the first time in the Bush presidency – should try to block Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq.

The partisan gap in support for the troop increase is equally wide: Nearly three-quarters of Republicans support the President’s plan, while 94 percent of Democrats are against it.