Military Action OK if Sanctions Fail, Poll Says

A majority of Americans favor military action against Iraq if international economic sanctions are not effective, and the level of support rises among those who are following the Persian Gulf crisis closely, according to survey results released Thursday.

The monthly news interest poll by the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press also shows wide--although somewhat declining--support for President Bush and the policies he is pursuing in an effort to pressure Iraq to withdraw its forces from Kuwait.

The gulf crisis is one of the most intensely followed news events of the past five years, the center reported. The survey shows that 63% of the public closely followed news of the crisis in September, only 3 percentage points less than in August.

The survey is based on interviews of 1,244 Americans from Sept. 10-12 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The center is operated by Times Mirror Co., owner of The Times and other media properties.

President Bush received an approval rating of 68% in the September survey, much lower than the 76% he had in August but still high, the center reported.

The poll indicates many Americans would continue to support Bush if he ordered military action in the gulf: 63% favored a military response if the economic blockade fails to force Iraq out of Kuwait, while 70% of those who closely followed the news endorsed such action.

Slightly more than half of the respondents--52%--said they have watched televised meetings between President Saddam Hussein of Iraq and groups of Western hostages. Of those who saw the meetings, 70% said the broadcasts made them more likely to back military action against Iraq.

Although some newspaper editorialists and columnists have decried what they characterize as confusion in the President’s goals, 55% of those polled said they believed that Bush had sent the troops to Saudi Arabia to defend the supply of oil.

Only 25% believed that the troops were there to defend the independence of gulf countries.

Andrew Kohut, director of surveys for the center, said that the percentages of Americans who had made up their minds about events in the gulf were unusually high.

Only 13% said they did not know whether they favored or opposed military action in the gulf, and only 17% said they did not know whether they approved or disapproved of the way the President is handling his job. The percentages of those who could not make up their minds was much higher during the Vietnam War 25 years ago.

Since 1986, only the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger, the San Francisco earthquake and the rescue of 18-month-old Jessica McClure from a well in Midland, Tex., have had more newspaper readership and bigger TV news audiences than the gulf crisis.