Poll: More in US See Progress in Iraq

Iraqi women watch as a U.S. army soldier from Blackfoot Company, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment patrols a street on the outskirts of Muqdadiyah in the volatile Diyala province, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 10, 2007. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic) (Marko Drobnjakovic - AP)

By 55 percent to 42 percent, more said they think history will consider the war a failure than a success. While most remain negative about the conflict's legacy, in September only 34 percent predicted success.

Just one in five Democrats and four in 10 independents think the war will be a long-range success, well less than the three-fourths of Republicans who think so.

Overall, only 38 percent think the 2003 invasion was the right decision, including three-fourths of Republicans, a third of independents and one-seventh of Democrats _ a negative perspective that has barely shifted all year.

Even so, the slowly improving views about progress raise the question of whether Iraq will give Democrats the slam-dunk political advantage in next year's presidential election that many in the party have long assumed it will.

Democratic voters are still strongly against the war and the party's presidential candidates compete for ways to criticize it. Such a tactic, though, might prove less effective when it is time to appeal to the more moderate voters who will participate in next year's general election.

So far, the public's improved mood has helped Bush _ slightly.

Thirty-six percent now approve of the overall job he is doing _ up four percentage points from last month, but still a poor showing for a president. Eight in 10 Republicans, three in 10 independents and one in 10 Democrats approve. His highest marks _ 42 percent approval _ are for handling foreign policy and terrorism.

Congress' approval remains mired at 25 percent _ near its January low of 22 percent.

Bush sent 30,000 additional troops to Iraq this year, with most focused on reducing violence in and around Baghdad. U.S. forces in the country exceed 160,000, though Pentagon officials have said that figure could decline to 135,000 next summer _ about where it was before the troop increase.

Besides the beefed up U.S. presence, the leader of the Mahdi Army militia, Muqtada al-Sadr, has ordered his fighters to temporarily stand down. And thousands of Iraqis, chiefly Sunni Arabs, have become U.S. allies in the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq.

As a result, violence has dropped considerably since June and there have been signs that Baghdad is becoming less chaotic. U.S. casualties have fallen from 101 in June to 37 in November, according to an AP count, and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in the country, says there has been a 60 percent decline in violence over the past half year.

Among Iraqi civilians, the number of deaths from war-related violence have dropped from 1,640 in June to 718 last month, according to the AP.

The poll involved telephone interviews with 1,009 adults conducted from Dec. 3-5. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

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AP Director of Surveys Trevor Tompson and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

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