Poll: Bush gets higher marks on terror
Nearly two-thirds of Americans satisfied with war on terrorism
(CNN) -- Nearly two-thirds of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the war on terrorism, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Tuesday.
Sixty-four percent of those polled said they were "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with the way things are going in the war on terrorism, while 35 percent said they were dissatisfied.
That is a significant change from October, when 53 percent said they were satisfied and 47 percent were dissatisfied with the war on terror.
The telephone poll of 1,010 adult Americans was conducted between Friday and Sunday, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Asked about their confidence in the Bush administration's ability to protect U.S. citizens from terrorism, 38 percent said they had a "great deal" of confidence and 35 percent said they had a "moderate amount."
Sixteen percent said they had "not much" confidence in the administration's ability to protect Americans, and 10 percent said they had "none at all."
The total number with confidence in the administration's ability -- 73 percent -- was up 9 percentage points, from 64 percent, in August.
The Bush administration launched the war on terror shortly after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, and has vowed to hunt down terrorists wherever they are.
U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, though some critics characterized the war in Iraq as a distraction from the war on terror.
The administration has said two-thirds of al Qaeda's leadership at the time of the attacks have been either captured or killed. Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, remain at large.
In his State of the Union address last week, Bush called Iraq "a vital front in the war on terror." A poll released Tuesday suggested the Iraqi elections held January 30 produced a bump in the president's approval rating. (Full story)
In his address, Bush also called Iran "the world's primary state sponsor of terror." And in Belgium on Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned that Iran must live up to its international obligations to halt its nuclear program or "the next steps are in the offing." (Full story)