By: E&P Staff Buried in an NBC/Wall Street Journal Survey released on Friday -- which mainly covered more general questions about President Bush and his policies -- were several questions about the November incident at Haditha, in which U.S. marines are said to have killed at least two dozen Iraqi civilians.
A major New York Times article on the alleged massacre appeared Saturday, airing fresh evidence.
One surprising finding in the poll: nearly one in three of the respondents (32%) said they believe such an incident was a "common one" in that war. Some 57% called it an "isolated incident" and 11% said they are "not sure."
In another finding, almost half (49%) agreed that Haditha was just something that "happens during war" and the marines should be "reprimanded but not brought up on criminal charges." One in three said that it "should be treated as a criminal activity."
At the same time, 62% said that the Haditha incident would cause a "setback" for the U.S. relationship with the Muslim world, with 33% saying it will have no effect.
More than half (54%) said they have followed the Haditha revelations a great deal or a fair amount.
In other findings, only 27% said they thought -- even after the killing of al-Zaraqawi -- that things were headed in the "right direction" in Iraq. As has been true for some time, the majority feel the invasion of Iraq was "mistake" and want troop withdrawals to start now.
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