UPI Poll: Petraeus's accuracy

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Less than half of respondents in a UPI-Zogby International poll said they expected testimony from a U.S. military leader to give the true situation in Iraq.

Ahead of the congressional appearances by U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, 7,081 U.S. residents were asked in a Zogby interactive poll about the war in Iraq. About 90 percent of participants said they were aware Petraeus was to testify before Congress.

But the respondents apparently didn't think that Petraeus's message would "reflect the actual situation on the ground in Iraq." The participants were asked to rate how accurate they thought the general would be on a 1-5 scale with 1 being "not accurate at all" and 5 meaning "very accurate."

While 28.6 percent of those asked gave a response of "5" and another 17 percent said "4," that is a positive response of 45.6 percent. Some 18.5 gave the neutral "3" answer while 31.4 percent -- 13.1 percent saying "1, not accurate at all" and 18.3 percent saying "2" -- giving negative expectations.

More than 58 percent of Democrats respondents gave either a "1" or "2" response and 69.9 percent of Republicans said either "5" (57.3 percent) or "4."