Americans say Iraq war not worth it

A majority of US voters now say it was not worth going to war in Iraq and feel the United States is getting bogged down there, according to a Los Angeles Times poll published yesterday.

In the survey of 1,230 registered voters conducted across the country from Saturday through Tuesday, 53 percent said it was not worth going to war in Iraq while 43 per cent said it was and 4 per cent said they did not know. The sample has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

The paper said the survey was the first time one of its voter surveys found a majority of voters doubting whether the situation in Iraq was worth the United States going to war there.

In a March LA Times survey, 53 per cent of voters said the war was worth fighting and 43 per cent said it was not, a reverse of the current figure. The paper said that 35 per cent of American voters thought the United States was making good progress in Iraq while 61 per cent said the country was getting bogged down there.

But 52 per cent of voters said that they thought the United States was winning the war in Iraq and less than one in four said the insurgents were winning.

Despite a growing sense that the war was not justified, voters did not advocate a quick pullout of Iraq.

Less than 20 per cent said America should withdraw its troops within weeks. Seventy-three per cent said that there should be no specific date for withdrawal because disorder and civil war could result.