- Support for a US ground invasion of Iraq has declined
rapidly in the United States during the past few months with nearly half
of all Americans opposed to such a strike.
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- A Time Magazine/CNN opinion poll released yesterday showed
that support for sending US troops to oust President Saddam Hussein of
Iraq fell dramatically from 73 per cent last December to just 51 per cent
last month.
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- The poll showed that, while most Americans agreed that
the US would be morally justified in invading Iraq, almost half (49 per
cent) believed it would lead to a long and costly war. One in seven believed
the United States would eventually be forced to withdraw from Iraq without
a victory.
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- President Bush's own standing among the American people
has also fallen. He is now less popular in the polls than the former Mayor
of New York, Rudolph Giuliani. On foreign policy specifically, Mr Bush's
approval ratings fell from 64 per cent in July to 56 per cent last month,
according to the Time poll.
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- Iain Duncan Smith, the Tory leader, called for Tony Blair
to lead the public debate in Britain, and spell out the "clear and
growing danger" Saddam represents. Mr Duncan Smith said Britain could
well be a target.
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- The decline in American support for an Iraq invasion
was bad news for the White House where serious splits emerged within the
Administration on the Iraq question.
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- The insistence of Colin Powell, the Secretary of State,
that Washington wanted a return of weapons inspectors to be the "first
step" in solving the crisis appeared to contradict Vice-President
Dick Cheney, who said last week there was little point in getting inspectors
to go back into Iraq. "The world has to be presented with the information,
with the intelligence that is available," he said, in remarks that
suggested the US will present a dossier against Saddam.
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- In an interview with BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme
General Powell seemed to be going some way to meeting concerns voiced by
Mr Blair in a telephone conversation with Mr Bush last Thursday. During
the lengthy chat Mr Blair appealed to Mr Bush to do as much as possible
to bring the international coalition back on board. Mr Blair has no intention
of weakening his support for the US. Sources said he did not want to box
Mr Bush in by demanding a new UN resolution, although if one emerged that
the US could support he would welcome it.
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- Mr Blair's case - which he is expected to amplify tomorrow
- is that America has much to gain from trying to get the weapons inspectors
back in.
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- Reports that General Powell is planning to leave the
Administration in 2004 at the end of Mr Bush's first term were a further
indication of tension in the White House. Sources close to General Powell
told this week's Time magazine that the doveish Secretary of State was
increasingly frustrated with having to fight the hawks in the Administration.
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- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-401530,00.html
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