PAUL KORING
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Washington — Evidence is mounting that U.S. President George W. Bush has not only failed to convince key allies that time has run out for Saddam Hussein, he has so far failed to win the support of most Americans to confront the Iraqi dictator now. In a powerful repudiation of Mr. Bush's hurry-up offence, German and French leaders stood shoulder-to-shoulder Wednesday to resist Washington's talk of war. "War is proof of failure, everything must be done to avoid it," French President Jacques Chirac proclaimed, joining German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in calling for more time for UN weapons inspections.
More important for Mr. Bush, support on the home front appeared increasingly shaky. Amid a rising clamour of domestic antiwar protests and increasingly voiced doubts from prominent figures, a poll released Wednesday indicates most Americans are unwilling to be rushed into war. The poll found that roughly two out of three Americans do not accept Mr. Bush's view that UN inspectors have had enough time or that Baghdad has already failed to comply with a unanimous UN Security Council Resolution requiring it to disarm. "There is great hesitancy among Americans," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. "The administration must make the case [for war] and it hasn't done so yet." The poll, conducted Jan. 16-20, also found Mr. Bush's own approval ratings are dropping. The overall approval rating of 59 per cent remains high — especially for a mid-term president — but is at its lowest level since before Sept. 11, 2001. For the first time in his presidency, the poll also found approval levels on his handling of the economy sagged as low as 43 per cent. On his handling of the Iraq crisis "support is down by 6 to 8 percentage points in just six weeks," said Richard Morin, poll analyst for The Washington Post, which commissioned the survey by TNS Intersearch along with ABC News. "It's an ominous trend for the White House." Like most poll respondents, Karis Moore said "the President isn't taking the time needed to find out [whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.]" The 23-year-old nursery-school teacher said "UN inspectors should be given a few months, perhaps as long as a year," to look for outlawed chemical, biological and nuclear-weapons programs in Iraq. More than 40-per-cent of the poll's respondents said the inspectors should "have as long as they want." The White House dismissed the poll findings. "The President believes that a strong majority of Americans agree with him that it's important Saddam Hussein disarm; and that if Saddam Hussein does not disarm on his own, he will lead a coalition to disarm Saddam Hussein with the support of a large majority of the country," spokesman Ari Fleischer said Wednesday. But Mr. Fleischer indicated the President will use next Tuesday's State of the Union address to strengthen public support. Mr. Bush clearly needs more supporters such as Harold Emahiser, 37, a financial consultant from Minneapolis, Minn. "We go [to war] whenever he says we go," he said Wednesday, walking not far from the White House on a frigid day in the capital. "I don't trust the UN to protect us." But for a large, and growing, number of Americans, the onus is shifting to the President to be more convincing on the reasons for war. Tens of thousands of antiwar protesters marched in Washington and other U.S. cities last weekend and a growing number of prominent Americans are speaking out, wanting to know the reasons for war. "There is clearly a rising swell demanding answers to something so consequential," actor and director Robert Redford said this week. "All I know is, I certainly haven't heard the answers," The poll found respondents equally split when asked whether the President had "presented enough evidence to show why the United States should use military force to remove Saddam Hussein from power." Solid majorities were deeply skeptical. If UN inspectors can't find convincing evidence that Baghdad still has chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programs, then 71-per-cent of respondents believed that it was incumbent on the administration to "present its own evidence." The poll is based on telephone interviews with 1,133 randomly selected adults in the United States. The margin of error for the overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points. The administration appeared less concerned about the growing opposition to war it is facing from abroad — even from nations that have long regarded themselves as the United States' key allies. "Germany has been a problem, and France has been a problem," U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday. But, he added, dismissively: "That's old Europe." Mr. Rumsfeld pointed to a new, expanding Europe that includes many nations formerly part of the Soviet empire, saying most of them support Washington. He seemed equally unconcerned by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's unwillingness to join a U.S.-led "coalition of the willing" in the event that no Security Council resolution explicitly authorizes the use of force against Iraq. "The United States and Canada are close friends and allies and neighbours," he said, [but] it's up to Canada to decide what it wishes to do."
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