Poll: Support for the Iraq war deteriorates

April 19, 2007
Poll: Support for the Iraq war deteriorates

Republicans and Democrats see the conflict much differently, according to the poll. More than 90 percent of Democrats oppose the war, compared to 24 percent of Republicans. In contrast, four years ago, 55 percent of Democrats and 91 percent of Republicans supported the war.

That partisan divide stands in stark contrast to the nation's last bitterly divisive war, a generation ago in Vietnam.

In 1971, when public opposition to the war in Vietnam was about the same as today's opposition to the Iraq war, both Democrats and Republicans opposed the conflict in nearly equal percentages. At the time, Republican Richard Nixon was in the White House, managing a war he inherited from the Democratic Kennedy-Johnson administration.

This time around, Bush finds himself living with the fallout from his own decision to invade Iraq. Most of his fellow Republicans remain supportive, but his policy has very little backing among Democrats.