Monday, October 22, 2007

Majority of Americans Oppose War with Iran.


Just how little Bush is managing to convince the American people of the need to attack Iran is made startlingly clear in a new CNN poll released today.

"If the U.S. government decides to take military action in Iran, would you favor or oppose it?"

Favor
29% Oppose 68% Unsure 4%
And that's even with a clear majority believing that Iran are trying to obtain a nuclear weapon.
"Based on what you have heard or read, do you think that the government of Iran is or is not attempting to develop its own nuclear weapons?"

Is 77% Is Not 18% Unsure 5%
Nor does this change dependent on whether or not Americans believe Iran is arming the insurgency.
"Based on what you have heard or read, do you think that the government of Iran is or is not providing weapons and other support to the insurgents who are fighting the U.S. troops in Iraq?"

Is
82% Is Not 13% Unsure 4%
68% of Americans are against military action in Iran even though 77% believe Iran is developing nuclear weapons and 82% believe that Iran is aiding the insurgency.

Perhaps this is why Bush is moving the goal posts and talking about World War Three. Of course, I don't believe for a minute that Bush will be prevented from doing anything simply because it's vastly unpopular. His unpopularity is so entrenched that he has nothing to lose now either way.

Nor do I expect any coverage of any possible war to acknowledge these statistics. Americans will continue to be fed a diet of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and William Kristol and be told that their views represent the views of ordinary Americans, as O'Reilly recently claimed.

It's simply scandalous that that these nutbags are allowed to take to the airwaves and pretend that most Americans think the way they do when every single poll that has come out has stated that, when it comes to any future conflict with Iran, the American people are opposed to their government attacking Iran.

Click title for CNN poll.

4 comments:

theBhc said...

Don't forget that Kristol and his neocon cohorts have already said that they think need only 30-40% public approval to launch an attack against Iran. This begs the question, why are you concerned about public opinion if this is a matter of "national security"? One does not decide to "get your war on" based on public opinion, at least, not nominally. So if this is the operating paradigm of Kristolian thinkers, then clearly the war is not based on necessity but on desire. In fact, AEI's Muravchik said, "I don't mind if we bomb Iran next month or the month after," so there is clearly no impending need, AEI just want it done.

Kel said...

Bhc,

I've linked further up the page to Muravchik saying just that.

It's simply astonishing, they simply want Iran attacked and have stopped even trying to make a case. They have reduced the argument to "could you live with a nuclear Iran?" without first proving that Iran desires a nuclear weapon.

theBhc said...

Well, if there is one thing we know about these "thinkers," it is that they like to keep things simple; us/them, good/evil, bomb/don't bomb.

Kel said...

Amen Bhc.