Nearly half Britons says Iraq war was right-poll

Reuters | 9/08/03

[kattracks]

LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Nearly half of Britons think it was right to go to war in Iraq, despite a growing death toll among troops and allegations that the government hyped its case for the conflict, an opinion poll published on Tuesday said.

The Populus poll for The Times newspaper shows there has only been a slight swing away from support for the war in the past month, a period dominated by revelations from a probe into the suicide of an Iraq weapons expert.

Of the 1,011 respondents asked in the poll whether they thought the war was "the right thing to do," 47 percent said "yes" and 43 percent said it was "the wrong thing to do."

A month ago the figures were 51 percent and 41 percent and in early July the gap was 47 percent to 45 percent.

The Hutton inquiry, set up to determine why weapons expert David Kelly killed himself, has thrown the spotlight on accusations that the government hyped intelligence to make the case for war.

Britain backed the U.S.-led invasion on grounds that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, although no such weapons have been found to date.

The poll was carried out last Friday and Saturday, after Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said more troops might be send to bolster the near 11,000-strong British contingent in Iraq, but before Monday's announcement that around 1,200 soldiers will be heading there.

Sixty-seven American and 11 British soldiers -- plus hundreds of Iraqis -- have been killed in combat or crossfire since U.S. President George W. Bush declared major combat over on May 1.

09/08/03 20:18 ET

[kattracks]

Nearly half Britons says Iraq war was right

In spite of the leftist media's constant negative reporting.

[cavtrooper21]

You can't fool all of the people all of the time..

The media does spent alot of time and effort trying though.

[Peach]

Can we imagine how high support would be without the leftists attacks and if people were given more access to the conservative press that has meticulously documented the Iraq/AQ connection, etc.

[CyberAnt]

This is amazing! I believe it was about 35% or so when the war started.

[xm177e2]

despite a growing death toll

And I thought the death toll was going to start shrinking eventually. I thought maybe even we would eventually turn a profit on the war and get back a hundred soldiers from the first Gulf War (recoup some of our initial investment).