Support for Bush drops among US military - poll

UncleChris · January 9th, 2006, 10:00 AM

Support for Bush drops among US military - poll
01.02.2006, 08:27 PM

WASHINGTON (AFX) - Support for President George W Bush's Iraq policy has fallen among the US armed forces to just 54 pct from 63 pct a year ago, according to a poll by the magazine group Military Times published yesterday.

In its annual survey of the views of military personnel, the group reported on its website that support for Bush's overall policies dropped over the past year to 60 pct from 71 pct.

While still significantly more supportive of the president than the broad US population, the fall in support by military personnel tracks a similar decline in the president's popularity among the general public.

'Though support both for President Bush and for the war in Iraq remains significantly higher than in the public as a whole, the drop is likely to add further fuel to the heated debate over Iraq policy,' Military Times said.

'In 2003 and 2004, supporters of the war in Iraq pointed to high approval ratings in the Military Times poll as a signal that military members were behind ... the president's policy.'

However, it said, the new poll 'found diminished optimism that US goals in Iraq can be accomplished, and a somewhat smaller drop in support for the decision to go to war in 2003.'

Military Times, which publishes popular magazines for each of the US military branches including Army Times and Navy Times, cautioned that its poll, of 1,215 active-duty servicemen, is not necessarily representative of the military as a whole.

The respondents were 'on average older, more experienced, more likely to be officers and more career-oriented than the military population.'

But the declining numbers for Bush tracked other polls. According to the CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, support for Bush's performance as president fell from 49 pct to 43 pct over the year to Dec 22.