Opposition to Iraq war rises in US, Bush ratings decline

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Opposition to the Iraq war in the United States is mounting and President George W. Bush's approval ratings have plunged to a new low, according to a poll released on Tuesday.

The poll results came as Congress renewed debate on war policy in Iraq with Bush facing unprecedented pressure from within his own Republican party to change course.

The USA Today/Gallup poll showed that seven in 10 Americans favor removing nearly all US troops from Iraq by April.

Only one in five said an increase in US forces in Iraq starting in January had improved the situation while half said Bush's "surge" strategy had made no difference, USA Today reported on Tuesday.

However, 55 percent said Congress should wait to formulate a new policy on Iraq until the commander of US forces there, General David Petraeus, delivers an assessment in September.

Sixty-two percent of those surveyed said the United States had made a mistake in deploying troops to Iraq, the first time that figure exceeded 60 percent, the paper said.

The poll, conducted Friday through Sunday, also showed Bush's approval rating had declined to 29 percent, compared to 33 percent in June and 38 percent in April.

Bush's standing among fellow Republicans is also deteriorating, the poll said, with 68 percent of Republicans saying they approve of his performance, down from an average of 82 percent in his second term following his re-election in 2004.

Nearly four in 10 Republicans said Bush's handling of the immigration issue caused them to lose confidence in the president.
Bush backed a major reform that would have offered a path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants but the proposal was defeated in Congress.

According to the poll, a two-thirds majority said Bush should not have intervened to commute the prison sentence of a former senior aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was convicted of perjury in a case relating to the leak of a CIA operative's identity.

A clear majority, 62 percent, of those surveyed said an impeachment inquiry against Bush would not be justified. Citing the Iraq war and other policies, liberal activists have urged Congress to launch impeachment proceedings, the equivalent of an indictment in a court.

Bush has registered one of the lowest ratings in the history of Gallup's polls, with only former presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Harry Truman receiving lower ratings. But the US president has previously won one of the highest ratings, following the September 11 attacks.

The poll surveyed 1,014 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.