Poll: 75 percent think war inevitable
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A slim majority of Americans doesn't think President Bush is moving too quickly toward war with Iraq, according to a new CNN/Time poll.
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ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) – A majority of Americans believes war with Iraq is inevitable and doesn't think President Bush is moving too quickly on that course, but also doesn't believe Iraq poses an immediate threat, according to a new poll.
In the survey, conducted by CNN and Time magazine, 75 percent of respondents said they thought war with Iraq was inevitable -- up from 63 percent in January -- while 20 percent thought war could be avoided. Last month, 31 percent thought an armed conflict could be averted.
Just over half of the those polled -- 52 percent -- said they didn't think President Bush was moving too quickly toward war, while 46 percent said they thought he was.
When asked if they thought Iraq posed an immediate threat to the United States, 39 percent of respondents said yes. Forty-seven percent of those polled said they didn't think Iraq posed an immediate threat, and 13 percent said they didn't think Iraq was a threat at all.
Most of those polled saw potentially dire consequences if U.S. forces invade Iraq. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said they thought there would be more terrorism in the United States, 68 percent said they thought there would be suicide bombings in the United States and 64 percent said there would be an attack similar to those carried out on September 11, 2001.
In addition, 90 percent of those polled said they thought a U.S. attack on Iraq would result in higher oil prices, and 59 percent said the U.S. economy would experience a serious recession.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who laid out the U.S. case against Iraq before the U.N. Security Council last week, received high marks in the poll. More than 80 percent of respondents said they approved of how he was handling his job, compared to 62 percent for President Bush.
As for the outcome of a war with Iraq, 54 percent of those polled said they would not consider it a victory if U.S.-led forces topple Saddam Hussein but fail to capture or kill the Iraqi leader. Forty-four percent said they would consider the military effort a victory if Saddam is toppled, regardless of whether he's captured or killed.
The telephone poll of 1,003 adult Americans was conducted Thursday. It has a sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
