July 25, 2003

Liberia update: Bush orders troops stationed off Liberian coast

President Bush has ordered an unspecified number of U.S. troops to be stationed aboard ship off the Liberian coast to help peacekeeping troops from other West African nations restore order in war-torn Liberia. The Defense Department earlier ordered the redeployment to the Mediterranean of a three-ship amphibious force carrying 2,000 Marines. These are likely to be the troops who go to Liberia. "We're deeply concerned that the condition of the Liberian people is getting worse and worse and worse," Bush told reporters in the White House Rose Garden. "Aid can't get to the people. We're worried about the outbreak of disease." The Bush administration has some serious internal divisions over whether sending Yanks into Liberia is a good idea. Secretary of State Colin Powell – a former general, let’s not forget – says we must because of the humanitarian disaster brewing there. But the Pentagon is worried about the danger to U.S. troops and wants a clear mission – and a strategy for concluding it successfully, something it could have used in Iraq.

Posted by tbrown at 12:09 PM

Bush slips, but his support is still solid, plus other poll results from all over

This is a numbers day, and boy do we have them. We’ve rounded up polls from all over – the U.S., Britain, Australia, Iraq even. Remember that any poll is just a snapshot in time, so it makes no sense to dwell much on the numbers in any one poll. What matters is trends. That said: The president’s numbers are lower, but hardly disastrous The slide, which pushed Bush back to the popularity levels he registered before the Iraq war, has encouraged Democrats and punctured the sense of inevitability about the president's re-election, analysts said, but hardly delivered a lethal blow to the White House. It’s still the economy Where Bush is really getting hurt is not so much on war issues (yet, at least) but on pocketbook questions, where Democrats are now favored by 17 percentage points. And Bush knows it … That’s why he’s begun a month-long push to sell his economic plan. In Britain, it’s Iraq Briitish Prime Minister Tony Blair has been hurt more by Iraq issues than Bush, a trend compounded by the suicide of a weapons scientist following a parliamentary grilling about his talking to the BBC about whether the Iraq threat was exaggerated. In the U.S., there has been little change in public attitudes toward the war in the last few weeks, according to a Gallup Poll taken prior to the announcement that Saddam Hussein’s sons had been killed. Support for the war is down substantially from its level during the main fighting, though. The difference between British and U.S. attitudes may be explained in part by the reality that Americans are amazingly ill-informed about the war. A new poll shows 37 percent think weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq and 22 percent think Iraq actually used WMDs in the fighting. Aussies feel misled, but still support their government Two-third of Australians believe their government misled them about the need for war in Iraq. Nonetheless, the government of Prime Minister John Howard has consolidated its lead over the main opposition. Bring in the U.N. Seventy percent of Americans think the U.S. should agree to put the Iraq occupation under UN control if it meant other countries would send troops. The poll reflects growing pessimism about the rebuilding of Iraq, but despite these doubts only 9 percent of those polled thought the U.S. should pull out. What Iraqis think about the war They’re deeply conflicted about the U.S. occupation and about what form of government will work for them, none of which seems surprising. However, this poll, in particular, should be viewed with some skepticism because after decades of draconian repression Iraqis are only beginning to wrestle with what their nation’s future should look like – and are just beginning to learn how to talk freely about it. Still, it’s interesting reading. A majority of Americans supports Bush’s Mideast “roadmap” But far fewer believe it will succeed. Bush slips among Arab Americans About one-third of Arab Americans now say they would vote for Bush, down sharply from how they voted in 2000. Another third would vote for the Democratic candidate and the rest are undecided. 44 percent of Americans say Islam promotes violence This is from a new poll for the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, which finds that, “Religion is a critical factor these days in the public's thinking about contentious policy issues and political matters … The public remains divided over whether churches should stay out of politics, even as large numbers say they are comfortable with expressions of faith by political leaders. There also is evidence that next year's presidential vote may again provoke deep religious divisions over social issues, especially homosexual marriage." Americans may be ill-informed, but some Germans are hallucinating “Almost one in three Germans below the age of 30 believes the U.S. government may have sponsored the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, “ this poll says. If these numbers aren’t enough, here’s where you can get more The blog site DailyKOS has a regularly updated list of poll results in the right-hand column.

Posted by tbrown at 11:12 AM