Poll: Voters Say Iraq Didn't Merit War

Now the majority of the American public believe that the war in Iraq didn't merit war, but we should stick it out and try to finish the job. Confidence in Bush's handling of the war, according to the poll, has plummeted 7 points since March. "Forty-one percent approved of Bush's handling of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, while 37 percent disapproved of his performance."


In other news, there are "Deep Divisions Remain Between Bush, World Leaders"

"But even here there was dispute. European leaders warned that change cannot be imposed on the Middle East.

Jordan cautioned that doing so could backfire. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would not contribute money, and the European Union pointed out that many of the initiatives were already being carried out by European countries.

French President Jacques Chirac and his German counterpart, Gerhard Schroeder - both unreformed opponents of the war that toppled Saddam Hussein - shot down Bush's hopes that NATO might commit more troops to Iraq.

Not acceptable, said Chirac, who reiterated that last year's U.S.-led invasion was 'neither necessary nor useful' and 'costly in all senses of the word.' ...

Nor was there agreement on slashing Iraq's estimated $120 billion debt - a burden the Bush administration says could derail hopes of getting the nation's economy going again.

Again, Chirac wouldn't budge. Slashing the debt by more than half, the French leader argued, would be unfair to other, poorer nations also saddled with debt.

'Iraq is a potentially rich country,' he said. 'How would you explain to these people that in three months we are going to do more for Iraq than we have done in 10 years for the 37 poorest and most indebted countries in the world?'

The fight against global warming, an issue Britain says it will make a priority when it hosts the summit next year at Gleneagles, Scotland, was another area where the allies remained far apart.

'We made no progress whatsoever,' said Chirac. He said of his efforts to alert Bush, a former oil industry man, to the dangers of climate change: 'It would be a total exaggeration to say that I won him over.' "