War in Iraq

79% Say Success In Iraq is Important

48% Say Success is Likely

Survey of 1,000 Adults

August 27-28, 2005

From the U. S. perspective, how important is it for Iraq to become a stable country that rejects terrorism?
Very Important	59%
Somewhat Important	20%
Not Very Important	11%
Not at All Important	3%
RasmussenReports.com

How likely is it that Iraq will become a stable country that rejects terrorism?
Very Likely	13%
Somewhat Likely	35%
Not Very Likely	31%
Not at All Likely	13%
RasmussenReports.com

August 29, 2005--Seventy-nine percent (79%) of Americans say that it is important for "Iraq to become a stable company that rejects terrorism." That figure includes 59% who say that Iraqi stability if very important to the U.S. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 14% say that objective is not very important or not at all important.

While 79% agree with President Bush on the importance of the Iraqi mission, just 48% believe that success is likely. In fact, just 13% say achieving stability in Iraq is "very likely." The public concerns about the War effort are primarily about competence, not ideology.

Forty-four percent (44%) of all Americans say U.S. success in Iraq is not likely.

Most interesting is that just 26% of Americans have a firm opinion on the likelihood of Iraq becoming a stable nation. These opinions are evenly divided and probably resistant to change. However, two-thirds of Americans (66%) fall in the middle saying that success is somewhat likely or not very likely.

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From a partisan perspective, most Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliateds agree on the importance of the mission. However, they offer different assessments of its potential to succeed.

Sixty-six percent (66%) of Republicans believe it is likely that Iraq will achieve stability and reject terrorism. That optimism is shared by just 38% of Democrats and 36% of those not affiliated with either major party.

Collectively, the data confirms that the ultimate political impact of the War in Iraq will depend upon whether or not Iraq emerges as a relatively stable nation when American troops come home. Rhetorical changes and challenges may affect the interim political debate, but have little lasting impact.

Among those who believe that the mission in Iraq is important, 58% believe it is likely to succeed. Among those who say it is not important, just 13% expect it to succeed.

By a 5-to-1 margin (61% to 13%), those who believe the mission is important believe that things will get worse in Iraq if U.S. troops are withdrawn.

Those who believe our mission in Iraq is not important take the opposite view--38% say Iraq will be better off if U.S. troops are withdrawn now while 16% say they will get better.

Demographic details available for Premium Members.

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Rasmussen Reports was the nation's most accurate polling firm during the Presidential election and the only one to project both Bush and Kerry's vote total within half a percentage point of the actual outcome.

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Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade.

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The telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports August 27-28, 2005. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. 37% of survey respondents were Republican, 37% Democrat, and 26% unaffiliated (see Methodology)