BY MARJORIE CONNELLY
The New York Times
The American public overwhelmingly supports the military action in Iraq and accepts President Clinton's explanation about its timing and its purpose, according to four national polls taken on Wednesday evening after the bombing began.
The air strikes against Iraq were viewed favorably by about three-quarters of the public — 73 percent in the ABC News poll, 79 percent in the CBS News poll, 75 percent in the NBC News poll and 74 percent in the poll conducted by the Gallup Organization for CNN and USA Today.
Only a minority expressed reservations about the timing of the attack. Most Americans accept that immediate action by the United States was warranted and proper, rather than a ploy to delay Thursday's scheduled congressional debate on impeachment. In the Gallup poll, for example, 62 percent said Mr. Clinton ordered the military strikes “solely because he felt it was in the best interests of the country.”
CBS News found that respondents supported the air strikes regardless of their attitudes on whether Mr. Clinton should be impeached. But opinion on the timing of the strikes differed depending on people's views of impeachment.
Those who supported impeachment were evenly divided on whether the timing of the air strikes was motivated by Thursday's scheduled debate, while those who opposed impeachment overwhelmingly rejected the notion that Mr. Clinton's decision was connected to those proceedings.
Meanwhile, protesters gathered Thursday in cities around the country to chant and shout opposition to the attack.
About 600 protesters marched from Times Square to Grand Central Terminal during the evening rush hour in New York City.
In Cleveland, about 40 people marched outside the federal courthouse. They shouted “No more sanctions, no more war!” and held signs that said “USA out of the Middle East” and “Clinton and Pentagon are the real terrorists.”
Most Americans (60 percent in the ABC News poll) continued to oppose the impeachment proceedings against Mr. Clinton.
The national polls were conducted by telephone on Wednesday night; ABC News interviewed 510 adults, CBS News 413 adults, NBC News 503 adults and Gallup 543 adults. The margin of sampling error for each poll is 5 percentage points.
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