Three-quarters of Americans are confident the United States will succeed in capturing or killing Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire who is the lead suspect in last week's deadly attacks on the United States, according to a poll released Monday by NBC television and the Wall Street Journal newspaper.
But an even greater percentage of respondents -- 81 percent -- said Washington should be completely sure it has fingered the right culprit before retaliating for the attacks.
The findings following a Newsweek poll released Saturday that showed 71 percent of Americans wanted to see military action to stamp out terrorism and were undaunted by the possibility of civilian casualties in countries that shelter terrorists.
Bin Laden, who lives in exile in Afghanistan, is considered by Washington to be the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks in which hijackers crashed commercial airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, leaving more than 5,000 dead or missing.
Fifty percent of those polled by NBC and the Wall Street Journal said they feel "a great deal" of confidence in US President George W. Bush's handling of the crisis, while another 29 percent expressed "quite a bit" of confidence in the president.
Among the other findings, 33 percent of survey respondents said the attacks underscored the need for closer US ties with Israel, while 16 percent said the US should seek more distant relations.
The poll, which surveyed 821 people on Saturday and Sunday, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points -- WASHINGTON (AFP)
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