Fewer than half of Americans think US will win Iraq war: poll

Fewer than half of Americans believed the United States would win the Iraq war, and 55 percent of those surveyed said it should speed up withdrawal plans, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Thursday showed.

The survey, conducted Friday through Sunday, found that only 21 percent of those polled said the United States definitely would win the war in Iraq, and 22 percent said they thought the country probably would win.

In comparison, 34 percent said they considered the war unwinnable, and 22 percent said the United States was capable of winning in Iraq - but probably would not.

The survey among 818 adults has a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Other poll results released on Monday found public support for President George W. Bush's handling of the war in Iraq had dropped to 32 percent, with 67 percent saying they disapproved of the way Bush was handling the war.

Fifty-nine percent said they considered the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a mistake, and 63 percent said they wanted to see some or all US troops withdrawn from that country.

More than 1,900 American troops have been killed in Iraq since March 2003.

Source: Xinhua