55% Disapprove of Bush

“They’ve maxed out on the troops. You’ve got guys who are over there on their fourth or fifth tours. It’s ridiculous,” says Jeanette Knowles, 40, of Mountain Home, Idaho, whose brother, Jeff, served a tour in Iraq with the Oregon National Guard…

Military families are more supportive of the war than Americans without immediate family members in the military, the polls show. Among Americans without military relatives, 59% say the invasion was a mistake, compared with 49% of immediate family members.

The data on close relatives of troops were gleaned from four national polls between Sept. 7 and Dec. 2. The polls identified 548 people as wives, children, parents, siblings, grandparents or a close in-law of a servicemember. Among them are 301 people whose loved ones served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Among military families, 55% disapprove of Bush’s performance compared with 64% of Americans without relatives in the service in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. Men in military families are more approving of Bush (47%) than female relatives (36%).