Public support for war remains strong in poll WAR IN THE GULF

PRINCETON, N.J. -- U.S. support for the Persian Gulf war remains strong as the conflict enters its second week. The latest Gallup Poll of 834 Americans conducted Wednesday and Thursday nights shows that a week of fighting and media coverage have solidified, rather than dissipated, support for U.S. involvement and for President Bush.

More than eight out of 10 Americans continue to support the decision to take military action against Iraq. Fewer than two out of 10 (16 percent) say it is a mistake -- unchanged from last week, and still about one-half the number who said it was a mistake immediately before the war began.

Support for Mr. Bush remains remarkably high. His overall job approval is now at 85 percent, the highest level of his administration, and as high as any president has received in modern times. Approval of the way Mr. Bush is handling the war is even higher, at 87 percent.

This support for the war comes at the same time that Americans are substantially lengthening their estimates of how long it will go on.

More than six out of 10 Americans now agree that the war will last months, and another 18 percent say it will last for more than a year.

The results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 834 adults, 18 and older. For results based on samples of this size, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects could be plus or minus 4 percentage points.