By 59 percent to 34 percent, more people said they believe history will judge the Iraq war a complete or partial failure than a success. Those calling it a failure included eight in 10 Democrats, three in 10 Republicans, and about six in 10 independents, the poll indicated - ominous numbers for a president who hopes to use a nationally televised address later this week to keep GOP lawmakers from joining Democratic calls for a withdrawal.
"It's time to turn the corner in my view, gentlemen," Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman and a Democratic presidential candidate, told Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, US ambassador to Iraq, as they testified before his panel yesterday. "We should stop the surge and start bringing our troops home."
Underscoring the public's negativity, four times as many predicted the war in Iraq would be judged as a complete US failure as the number who saw a complete success, 28 percent to 7 percent.
When the Gallup Poll asked the same question in September 2006, 52 percent said the war will be judged as a partial or complete failure, seven points fewer than the AP-Ipsos survey.
"The enemy was in Afghanistan, and I believe going into Iraq we took our eye off the ball," said Ann Bock, 66, a retired teacher and Democratic-leaning voter from Edmond, Okla., who participated in the survey.
In the poll, more people rated the troop increase a flop than a success by 58 percent to 36 percent, with three in 10 Republicans joining majorities of Democrats and independents in foreseeing failure.
Positive reviews of the troop increase were at about the same level as they were in mid-January, just after Bush announced the buildup.
In the new survey, people calling it a mistake to go to war in March 2003 outnumbered those calling it the right decision by 57 percent to 37 percent, numbers that have stayed about level for more than a year.
About a quarter of Republicans, along with most Democrats and independents, labeled the war an error.
Among those in the poll supporting the conflict was Ronald Shaul, 62, a Republican and retired military intelligence officer.
