The American public overwhelmingly stands behind President George W Bush and his planned war on terrorism, the first surveys of public opinion after Tuesday's attacks show.
About four in five people in the polls support military action to avenge the terrorist attacks, think more terrorist attacks in this country are at least somewhat likely, and approve of the job being done by the president.
Polls taken by ABC-Washington Post, CBS, CNN-Time Magazineand NBCall reflect the huge margins favouring a strong military response and backing the president. The polls taken in the days since the bombing had error margins of plus or minus three to four percentage points.
By more than a 2-1 margin, people said they were more concerned that the country would underreact, not overreact. Some, however, want the US military response to be carefully targeted.
Two-thirds said they thought the attacks were worse than Pearl Harbour. Even some of those old enough to remember Pearl Harbour agreed.
Some other key findings of the polls:
- Terrorism was considered the top problem faced by the country today, far ahead of the economy.
- Seven in 10 said they favoured a military response even if it should result in a long war that caused a high number of US military casualties.
- About nine in 10 favoured tougher safeguards for air travel, even if that meant long delays.
- Large majorities said the attacks made them more likely to show more appreciation of loved ones, fly the flag, pray more and donate blood.
- Nine in 10 said they had faith the United States would recover from the attacks and move on.
AP