Fewer Texans support war, poll shows

[Judi Lynn]

Fewer Texans support war, poll shows

56% say it's worthwhile, down from 62% recorded in May


09:53 PM CDT on Saturday, September 4, 2004
By JIM LANDERS / The Dallas Morning News


Support among Texans for the war in Iraq is waning, although 56 percent agree Saddam Hussein's rule of that country made the war worthwhile, according to the most recent Texas Poll. In May, a similar poll of 1,000 Texans found 62 percent agreed with President Bush's decision to launch the war. The summer result was the lowest recorded since the war began in March 2003.

Texans were contacted between Aug. 9 and Aug. 26, when U.S. forces were fighting a running battle in An Najaf with the militia of dissident Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Two-thirds of those polled again disapproved of the way things were going in the Iraq war.
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The latest Texas Poll found Texans uneasy about the overall war on terrorism. Forty-five percent of Texans agreed with Mr. Bush's assertion that the war in Iraq has made the United States safer, and 50 percent disagreed.

"That surprised me," said Texas Poll director Ty Meighan. "That's a point that Bush has been making, and he's fairly popular in Texas. So not all Texans are buying that argument."
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