A majority of Americans, however, seems to have a patience limit. Only a third of those polled believed Hussein could be contained by a permanent weapons inspection team in Iraq, a proposal floated by U.N. Security Council member France. Nearly 60% said military action is the only way to eliminate the risk posed by Hussein.
Overall, the survey found a bump in support for Bush, whose job approval rating climbed from 52% a week ago to 61% in the latest survey. (Powell had an 78% job approval rating, with 50% strongly approving of his performance.) Support for Bush's handling of Iraq climbed from 54% to 60%.
Nearly eight people in 10 now believe a war with Iraq is inevitable -- compared with 74% a week ago -- and about two-thirds of respondents believe it will last up to six months or more. About 25% expect a war to last less than a month.
Regardless of their attitudes about war, a substantial majority -- 64% -- believes a decision to invade will mean a U.S. commitment of six months or more to rebuild Iraq afterward. Nearly three-fifths believe Americans will have to stay and rebuild for a year or more.
Seven in 10 also believe that the threat of terrorism against Americans at home and aboard has increased because of the possibility of U.S. military action against Iraq.
Still, 88% of those surveyed said they were not changing their behavior -- avoiding public places or major events, for instance -- out of fear of a terrorist attack.
Richard Purdy, 56, who grows garlic and potatoes on a 200-acre farm in western Wisconsin, admitted his rural patch is an unlikely terrorist target. But he travels to San Francisco and Washington, D.C., among other places, and said he won't be deterred by heightened alerts.
"I figure there's always been risks," Purdy said. "We just ignored it until the twin towers happened. It was always there. Now we just live with it."
The Times Poll, under the supervision of director Susan Pinkus, interviewed 1,385 adults nationwide Jan 30-Feb 2; 809 adults from the original study were contacted by telephone Friday and Saturday. The margin of sampling error for both samples is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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Impact of Powell's speech
The Times Poll contacted the same Americans in the days before and after Colin Powell's presentation of evidence against Iraq to the U.N. Security Council.
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