Poll Shows Dramatic Decline in How Iraqis View Lives, Future

Overall, more than eight in 10 Iraqis questioned said they have little or no confidence in the U.S. and British forces, while they were evenly divided about their own government: Forty-nine percent expressed confidence in the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki; 51 percent did not. Forty-three percent said they approve of Maliki's job performance; 57 percent said they disapprove.

Assessments of the government in Baghdad reflect sectarian and ethnic differences. About three-quarters of Shiites and Kurds have confidence in the government, while just 8 percent of Sunnis feel that way. Similarly, two-thirds of Shiites and six in 10 Kurds approve of the prime minister's work, but only 3 percent of Sunnis do so.

Despite the overwhelming opposition to U.S. forces -- nearly eight in 10 oppose the presence of coalition soldiers -- about half of Iraqis polled said they think the U.S.-led invasion was the right thing to do. Forty-eight percent in the current survey said the invasion was right and 52 percent said it was wrong. In 2005, those numbers were 46 percent and 50 percent, respectively.

Asked about countries in the region, a majority of Iraqis polled said Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria were "actively engaged in encouraging sectarian violence within Iraq." Seventy-one percent said Iran was involved in such activity; 66 percent said the same of Syria and 56 percent said so of Saudi Arabia.

A majority -- 58 percent -- said that Iraq should remain unified with a central government in Baghdad, but the percentage had slipped from 70 percent in 2005 and 79 percent in 2004. Asked whether Iraq will emerge with such a system, regardless of their own preferences, only 43 percent of those surveyed said they thought it would.

The poll also indicated that the country's challenges are affecting increasing numbers of Iraqis on an individual level. Nearly half said security was the biggest problem they faced, up from 18 percent in 2005 and 25 percent in 2004. Eighty percent said incidents of violence -- from car bombings to kidnappings to unnecessary violence by security forces -- had occurred near their homes.

Fifty-three percent said a family member or friend had been physically harmed by violence in the country, and 86 percent said they worried that a member of their household would become a victim of violence.

Eighty-four percent of Baghdad residents in the survey said they do not feel safe at all in their neighborhood; only 7 percent said so in 2005.

The vast majority of respondents -- 88 percent -- rated the supply of electricity as quite bad or very bad, up from 54 percent in 2005. In the earlier survey, 74 percent of Iraqis said the electricity situation would improve in a year's time; the proportion of those expressing such optimism dropped to 28 percent in the current poll.

The survey results indicated that the availability of jobs, clean water, medical care, education and other basic needs and services also had deteriorated since the period immediately following the invasion.

Interviews for the ABC News poll were conducted in person by Iraqi interviewers between Feb. 25 and March 5 among a random sample of 2,212 adults in all 18 provinces. Overall, the results have a 2.5 percentage-point margin of sampling error. The poll was conducted by D3 Systems of Vienna, Va., and KA Research Ltd. of Istanbul.

The ORB poll included in-person interviews with 5,019 Iraqi adults and was conducted Feb. 10-22. That poll has a margin of sampling error of at least 1.4 percentage points.

Polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.