Americans for the first time are raising doubts about whether the nation can accomplish its objectives in fighting terrorism at home and abroad, from capturing or killing Osama bin Laden to saving the international alliance from unraveling to protecting people from future attacks, the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll shows.
Despite threats about anthrax unfolding virtually every day and little discernible progress in the air campaign against the Taliban, Americans are still offering President George W. Bush their overwhelming approval.
Bush's job approval rating, which soared after Sept. 11, stands firm at 87 percent. And Congress has an approval rating of 67 percent, the highest since The Times and CBS News began asking about it in the 1970s.
Even so, after six weeks in which people were not inclined to critique aspects of the government's response, there are stirrings of discontent that extend to how the nation is responding to domestic terrorism and to how it is handling the war.
The public is questioning whether the government is doing enough to forestall what it increasingly expects to be another terrorist attack in this country within months.
Fifty-three percent say another attack is very likely, up from 46 percent two weeks ago and 36 percent two weeks before that. Most people say they are expecting the attack to be in the form of bioterrorism.
These responses came before Attorney General John Ashcroft announced on Monday that new terrorist attacks were expected as soon as this week.
Yet more than half the public says the government in Washington -- as well as state and local governments -- - has not done enough to prepare for a biological attack.
And nearly half of Americans say the government is withholding information they need to know about the recent anthrax cases. More than a quarter say public health officials are wrong in advising people not to ask their own doctors for Cipro, an antibiotic used in treating anthrax.
While security has been tightened at airports, leading to a now-common sight of interminable lines, Americans are still jumpy about traveling on airplanes. They want the federal government to take complete control of hiring and supervising all airport security personnel.
The nationwide telephone poll of 1,024 adults was conducted Thursday through Sunday. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Tom Cale, a poll respondent who sells cars in Fairmont, West Virginia, is among those who support the nation's leaders but has nagging concerns. "It's not that we don't have competent people in positions of authority," Cale, 50, said in a follow-up interview. "They just haven't written the book yet about the potential dangers that are out there."
Bracing for more terror, Cale said, "The next attack would be what you least suspect. It's going to be something that few people would see that would affect the most people, like sabotaging gas supply lines or taking out two or three main power stations."
Joan Kautz, 49, a rental car agency clerk in Linden, New Jersey, said: "With the added security at the airport, bioterrorism is the only way to get in here. That's why they've used the mail, and even now the government is not protecting our postal workers."
In one of the most striking shifts, only 18 percent of Americans said they had a great deal of confidence that the government could protect them from terrorism; a month ago, 35 percent had such confidence. A majority, 58 percent, said they had a fair amount of confidence. The rest had little or no confidence.
Similarly, people feel that the government can protect them from anthrax and smallpox, but the degree of confidence is another matter. Only 15 percent have a great deal of confidence that the government can protect them from anthrax; 19 percent say the same about smallpox.
Americans are not entirely satisfied with the military action in Afghanistan and seem less hopeful than they were before the bombing began. Although most respondents said the war was going well for the US, the largest proportion -- 58 percent -- said it was going only somewhat well. Twenty-five percent said it was going very well and 13 percent said it was going badly.
Only 28 percent are very confident that the US will capture or kill bin Laden, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks. In a CBS News poll two weeks earlier, 38 percent said they were very confident.
In another sign of mounting uneasiness about the war, only 29 percent said they were very confident in the ability of the US government to maintain the international alliance of countries that support the military campaign; two weeks ago, 46 percent were very confident.
The public is prepared for a long and bloody conflict in Afghanistan; a majority of Americans say they are willing to accept the deaths of several thousand US troops there. More than eight out of 10 respondents said they thought the conflict would extend beyond Afghanistan into neighboring countries and other parts of the world.
There were signs of anxiousness in the poll, perhaps because it was conducted at a time when developments had made people feel more vulnerable.
Most Americans say they have been closely following the news about anthrax sent through the mail and many have begun handling their own mail cautiously.
The poll turned up mixed messages about the extent to which people were panicky. While they are concerned about whether the government can protect them, Americans are calm at home. Only a quarter say they are worried about terrorism in their own communities. While 20 percent of Americans say they are more edgy now than they were before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, few say they are having trouble sleeping or are experiencing any loss of income.
For all their misgivings about the government's capacity to protect them, the public remains steadfast behind its leaders. Most people say that Bush has clearly explained the goals of both the military action in Afghanistan and the war against terrorism in general. Nearly eight in 10 respondents approve of the way Bush is handling the war on terrorism; more than six in 10 approve his handling of the economy. Six in 10 now say the country is moving in the right direction. Last June, well before the attacks, only four in 10 said the same thing.
The public's support for its leaders and government extends far beyond the White House. Over almost the last three decades, the job approval rating for Congress has never approached 67 percent, where it stands today.
Now, more than half of Americans said they trusted the government to do what was right just about always or most of the time. In 1998, when The Times and CBS News last asked the question, only 26 percent said they trusted the government.
Still, the poll found that the public was not prepared for a more activist government. Despite the high profile of many government agencies since Sept. 11, people still favored a smaller government with fewer services over a bigger government with more services, 52 percent to 43 percent.
Julie Hartfield, 22, a nursing assistant in Rochester, said she did not know what to expect now.
"I feel like America was a little too sure of itself, thinking that no one could touch us," she said. "After the first anthrax outbreak, they should have made sure security was tight. Now there are outbreaks all over the place, and you wonder, `What's next?'"
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