A majority of people in Hawai'i do not believe the war in Iraq has made the world safer for the United States, but people want U.S. troops to stay until a stable democracy is in place, a new Advertiser Hawai'i Poll shows.

People in the Islands had opposed going to war in 2003 with only a few allies and without the support of the United Nations. A majority also told the Hawai'i Poll in 2004 they believed President Bush had misled the American people on the rationale for war. But despite this skepticism, 58 percent said in interviews in June that the troops should stay.

"I don't think it's going in the right direction. I don't think it was ever going in the right direction in my opinion," said Nicole Timon Shipman, a DVD producer who lives in Makawao, Maui.

Shipman said she travels frequently and has detected more animosity toward Americans because of the war. But she said she does not know whether the answer is to withdraw U.S. troops.

"If we pull out it's going to be chaos," she said, "but it's already chaos."

Penny Ontai, a pediatric registered nurse who lives in Mililani, said she is proud the United States has tried to protect itself and the rest of the world from its enemies in Iraq and from terrorists.

"It's easier to identify and deal with them before they deal with us," she said. "They have no respect for humanity. They have no conscience about who they decide to exterminate."

The Hawai'i Poll was taken by Ward Research Inc. for The Advertiser from interviews with 602 registered voters last month. The margin of error was 4 percent. Some of the questions on Iraq were similar to questions asked in previous polls so the newspaper could compare the responses over time.

Fifty-two percent said the war did not make the United States safer, down slightly from 56 percent in 2004 but within the margin of error. Sixty-three percent believe the United States will pull out of Iraq within five years, compared to the 34 percent who said in 2004 that American troops would withdraw on schedule — an answer given at a time when troop withdrawal was not being widely discussed.

Ira Rohter, a political science professor at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, said the Bush administration has framed the debate as a choice between staying the course or withdrawing troops immediately. He said he would like to see more discussion about a gradually staged troop withdrawal and consideration of greater power sharing in Iraq among competing ethnic and religious factions.

But he said the war has not made the United States any safer. "The public is getting that particular story line, but on the question of how to get out of Iraq, I think the public debate is pretty simplistic," he said.

Marvin Siegfried, department commander for the American Legion in Hawai'i, said he believes most people want U.S. troops to finish their mission. "We definitely support staying the course and finishing this up and letting the government over there take over when they're able," he said.

Siegfried also said many people — 39 percent in the Hawai'i Poll — think the United States is safer because of the leadership initiative shown through the war.

"We haven't been attacked since 9/11," he said. "To me, I think we need to wipe it out there before it gets here. It's better to fight them on the ground there than it is to try to fight them here."

U.S. military commanders have briefed federal lawmakers about potentially reducing the number of brigades in Iraq if the insurgency does not spread and progress is made toward a new government. The U.S. Senate voted last month against withdrawing troops by July 2007, while the U.S. House voted for a resolution that opposed an arbitrary withdrawal date.

In Hawai'i, the war could have a political impact in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate between U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka and U.S. Rep. Ed Case.

Akaka, who was in the minority of senators who supported removing troops by next July, said the Senate debate sent a message the Bush administration could not ignore. Case has said he does not believe in setting a rigid withdrawal date.

The Hawai'i Poll found that many look at the war along partisan lines. Most Democrats and independents believe the war did not make the United States safer, while most Republicans believe it did.

The people who are the most divided about whether troops should stay — the poor, Hawaiians, those who live on the Neighbor Islands — are also the same demographic groups who more strongly favor Akaka's re-election. Case's position tracks more closely to the majority opinion.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.