Americans split on weapons claim, but support Bush

The American public is split on whether President George Bush exaggerated information while making the case for war with Iraq, but still expressed strong support for his decision to take military action, according to a poll.

Asked whether Bush gave the most accurate information he had or exaggerated that information while making his case for war, the public is split, with 48% saying he gave the most accurate information and 47% saying he exaggerated, according to the NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll.

But public doubts on how he made the case for war do not appear to be dampening support for his decision to take military action to remove Saddam Hussein from power. The poll indicated that about seven in 10 – 69% – supported that action, and 27% did not.

About the same number, 66%, supported Bush for the job he was doing on terrorism, although they were split on his handling of the economy.

Democrats, especially the nine Democratic presidential candidates, have been extremely critical of Bush’s approach to making the case for war, especially his use of a now-discredited claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Africa for a nuclear weapons programme.

But the poll suggests this strategy may not be working. Three in 10 said the Democrats’ criticism was legitimate, and more than half, 56%, said the Democrats “are mostly playing politics”. Bush’s job approval in this poll was at 56%, about where it has been in several other recent polls.

The poll of 1,007 adults was taken from Saturday to Monday and has an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points.