Only One Quarter of U.S. Adults Think That Sending More Troops to Iraq Will Improve Security

ROCHESTER, N.Y., March 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A majority of U.S. adults are pessimistic that "the surge", i.e., the addition of more than 20,000 U.S. troops, will be successful, with only about one quarter of all adults (26%) believing that this will improve security and reduce the killings in Iraq. A similar 29 percent of adults think that sending the additional troops is the right thing to do.

President George W. Bush has spoken of the strong evidence that Iran is helping the Shiites in Iraq by providing them with weapons. A 59 percent to 10 percent majority of adults (with 31 percent undecided) think this is true. However, only a third of adults (32%) would favor bombing Iran even if this is proven to be true.

These are some of the results of a new Harris Poll of 2,223 U.S. adults surveyed online between March 6 and 14, 2007. The survey also includes several questions tracking long term attitudes about the war in Iraq. In general, these show very few changes since January, except for small drop in those who think that invading Iraq was the "right thing to do" to 34 percent, its lowest point yet.