Poll: U.S. more a threat than Iraq
Tuesday, February 11, 2003 Posted: 1655 GMT
Half of respondents see Blair as Bush's "lapdog," the poll showed
LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British public believes the United States and North Korea are bigger threats to world peace than Iraq, a survey released on Tuesday shows.
europe.cnn.com
Despite the global drama surrounding Iraq, three out of four Britons no longer see it as a major danger, according to the Channel 4 News poll.
The percentage of people who see Iraq as a threat has fallen to 23 percent from 40 percent in November.
Meanwhile, concern over North Korea, which has said it is resurrecting its nuclear weapons program, increased from 4 percent to 27 percent.
The perception of danger from the United States grew from 27 percent to 32 percent.
A majority, 61 percent, said they were convinced Iraq possesses banned weapons and that steps should be taken to keep them from falling into the hands of terrorists.
About the same percentage of respondents, 62 percent, said they would support the use of force against Iraq if a majority of U.N. Security Council members voted for it.
Half of the people survey said a war against Iraq would be wrong because of the loss of Iraqi civilian lives.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's reputation took a hit in the poll.
Half see him as U.S. President George W. Bush's "lapdog," up from 46 percent in November. Blair also is seen as less trustworthy than before, scoring 4.1 on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being most trustworthy. His previous score in the Channel 4 poll was 4.7.
In other results:
• 40 percent of respondents see Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as a fairly big threat, but an equal percentage -- slightly more than last year -- see him as a fairly small threat; 71 percent see him as an evil dictator
• 61 percent of those surveyed were unconvinced by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation on Iraq to the U.N. Security Council last week
• Of the 61 percent, 40 percent felt the evidence presented by Powell was genuine but doesn't prove anything; 21 percent felt the information was false.
YouGov questioned 2,300 people online between February 7 and 10. That sample was drawn from 3,213 people who participated in the survey last November.
According to the surveyers, raw data was weighted to represent the democratic profile of all British adults.
Channel 4 said the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. |
