Most Support Iraq Pull Out Timetable

July 20, 2007 | A replica of the Statue of Liberty is wheeled through the streets of Kennebunkport on a funeral caisson during an anti-war protest in Maine on July 1, 2007. A CBS News/New York Times poll finds a majority of Americans think Congress should not continue to fund the war unless a timetable for withdrawal is put in place.
(Photo: Jim Bourg / Reuters)

Poll: Most Support Iraq Timetable
CBS

Wednesday 18 July 2007

While Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a Democratic bid to force a vote on U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, a CBS News/New York Times poll finds a majority of Americans think Congress should not continue to fund the war unless a timetable for withdrawal is put in place.

Sixty-one percent of Americans surveyed think the war should be funded only if there's a timetable for withdrawal. Twenty-eight percent say funding should be continued without a timetable, while 8 percent think all funding for the war should be blocked, no matter what.

What Should Congress Do About Iraq War Funding?

Fund with timetable
61%
Allow all funding
28%
Block all funding
8%

There's a sharp political divide on the funding issue. Most Democrats (77 percent) and Independents (60 percent) think funding should be tied to a pullout timetable, while more than half of Republicans (53 percent) think funding for war should continue unfettered.

Americans remain extremely dissatisfied with the course of the war. Seventy-four percent, about the same number as last month, say the war is going badly, including 45 percent who say it's going very badly.

Again, there's a strong political split, with large majorities of Democrats (91 percent) and Independents (76 percent) saying the war is going badly, while half of Republicans say it's going well.

How is the War Going?

Total
Well
25%
Badly
74%

Republicans
Well
49%
Badly
50%

Democrats
Well
8%
Badly
91%

Independents
Well
22%
Badly
76%

More than half of Americans (51 percent) surveyed do not think President Bush's recent troop surge is having any impact on the situation in Iraq. Sixty-three percent think the number of U.S. troops should be decreased, including one in three that says all U.S. troops should be removed. Eighteen percent think the U.S. troop level should stay the same; 12 percent say it should be increased.

The poll also looked at views of the war by gender. While a majority of both men and women think the war is going badly, more women (67 percent) than men (54 percent) say funding for the war should be tied to a troop withdrawal timetable; more men (35 percent) than women (21 percent) think funding for the war should be allowed, no matter what.

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This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,554 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone from July 9-17, 2007. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher. An oversample of women was also conducted for this poll, for a total of 1,068 interviews among this group, by selecting them with higher probability than men in households with both men and women. The weights of men and women in mixed-gender households were adjusted to compensate for their different probabilities of selection. The final weighted distribution of men and women in the sample is in proportion to the composition of the adult population in the U.S. Census.