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MPR Poll: Growing concern about involvement in Iraq
by Laura McCallum, Minnesota Public Radio
June 1, 2004

Soldiers observe a moment of silence during a Memorial Day ceremony at Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq. Soldiers gathered to pay tribute to servicemen and women who have been killed in the line of duty. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A new poll finds growing concern about the aftermath of the war in Iraq, even though a majority of Minnesotans say the U.S. was right to invade Iraq. The Minnesota Public Radio-St. Paul Pioneer Press poll also found most Minnesotans want the U.S. to stabilize Iraq, even if it takes awhile. Yet many people say they believe the Bush administration misled the public about the reasons for going to war.

St. Paul, Minn. — Mason-Dixon Polling and Research asked 625 registered voters to listen to three statements about the war in Iraq, and decide which statement they agreed with. Nearly one-third of respondents said they think the Bush administration was right to fight the war in Iraq, and is generally doing the right thing in rebuilding Iraq. That's down from more than half of respondents who agreed with that statement in a similar poll a year ago.

At the same time, 41 percent of those polled last week say the Bush administration was right to go to war, but didn't adequately prepare for the aftermath. Dan Hofrenning, chair of the political science department at St. Olaf College in Northfield, says the responses to those first two statements indicate overwhelming support for intervening in Iraq.

"Those two numbers add up to 70 percent of Minnesotans who think, overall, going to war against Iraq was a good thing. There's a great deal of disagreement with how the current phase of the war is being managed, and I suspect the campaign in the fall will hinge upon the way in which President Bush is managing the war," Hofrenning says.

The final statement in the poll question said the Bush administration was wrong to fight the war in Iraq, and 28 percent of respondents agreed woth that sentiment. Robert Coffman of St. Paul is one of them. Coffman, 45, is a college math professor. He says the war was a big mistake, but now the U.S. must stay in Iraq until the situation is stabilized.

There's a great deal of disagreement with how the current phase of the war is being managed, and I suspect the campaign in the fall will hinge upon the way in which President Bush is managing the war. - Dan Hofrenning, St. Olaf political scientist

"I think it's going to take a very long time. I mean, I think that a lot of what we're trying to accomplish in Iraq could have been accomplished if we were just willing to wait," Coffman says. "I think we could have managed the Saddam situation in a conservative way, waited until he would have been deposed, sometime in the next 15 or 20 years, and then I think that countries local to the region would have created some of the same sort of initiatives that we're creating."

The vast majority of respondents -- 78 percent -- say the U.S. should help Iraq set up a functioning democracy even if it takes awhile. Just 17 percent said the U.S. should pull out of Iraq. At the same time, Minnesotans are divided about whether U.S. intervention will ultimately make things better in Iraq. Terry Haefner of Mankato, who is retired, says he doesn't think the war will make any difference.

"I think when we finally pull out, it will be like a Vietnam. We will not have made any difference at all," says Haefner. "It will go back to the status quo, the way it was before we ever stepped foot in there, because the problems they had before are going to be there when we leave again."

Haefner says he thinks the real reason President Bush decided to invade Iraq was to finish the job his father started in the first Gulf War.

The poll found slightly more than half of respondents believe the Bush administration misled the American people about the reasons for going to war. Liz Traff of Rochester disagrees. She's a stay-at-home mom with four kids, who says she supports the administration's decision.

"I have confidence in the leadership of our country knowing a lot more than I know, and having more details than I do. So I believe that a wise decision was made," says Traff. "How it's going to play out, I don't know. I would like to know, because obviously our young men and women are over there fighting and losing their lives, and nobody likes to see that."

Traff and most other poll respondents say they were disturbed by recent reports of prisoner abuse by American soldiers, but that shouldn't deter the U.S. from its mission in Iraq. The poll's margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

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