Washington’s Blog
June 14, 2013
Source: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/06/americans-on-both-sides-of-the-aisle-oppose-war-in-syria.html
Left-leaning Huffington Post calls the Syria war a “quagmire”:
Right-leaning Drudge Report shows a picture of an Al Qaeda soldier with weapons:
The American public is extremely hesitant to intervene directly in Syria’s fighting.
Indeed, a June 1st NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found:
The American public is extremely hesitant to intervene directly in Syria’s civil war.
Asked to pick a response to stop the killing of civilians in Syria, just 15 percent in the poll say they favor U.S. military action, and only 11 percent want to provide arms to the opposition.
By comparison, a plurality of respondents — 42 percent — prefer to provide only humanitarian assistance, and 24 percent believe the U.S. shouldn’t take any action.
Perhaps more significantly, those attitudes cut across party lines and almost all demographic groups.
“Whether you voted for Romney or Obama, they have the same opinion on Syria,” said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the survey with the Democratic firm Hart Research.
“It explains the great reticence of the American public,” McInturff added.
Similarly, Gallup found on May 31st:
Sixty-eight percent of Americans say the United States should not use military action in Syria … even though they expect that diplomatic efforts will fail to bring peace.
Gallup found that 72% of Democrats, 70% of Independents and 64% of Republicans oppose war in Syria.
And the Philadelphia Tribune reported on May 26th:
Americans are right to be wary about the United States getting more involved in Syria.
A new Fox News poll released days before Memorial Day, a day of remembering the men and women who died in military service for the United States, shows that 68 percent of voters say the U.S. should stay out of greater involvement in Syria because it’s a civil war and the U.S. could actually end up helping anti-American extremist groups.
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The poll showed that opposition to getter involvement in Syria was across the political spectrum: Of those who are Independents 65 percent agree the U.S. should stay out of Syria, Democrats (69 percent) and Republicans (70) agree.
Of voters who have served in the military 67 percent say the U.S. should not intervene.
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The opposition of American voters is understandable after two long, costly and unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Americans have not forgotten that the Bush administration used the claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction as a pretext for invading that country. That claim proved to be false.
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There is evidence that the U.S. could be making the mistake of getting involved in a civil war that is not vital to U.S. national security interest and that could actually end up arming anti-American extremist groups.
Indeed, there is substantial doubt that the Syrian government – as opposed to other parties, or evenother countries – used chemical weapons.
And we are backing Al Qaeda and other terrorists in Syria, and pissing off Hezbollah and other terrorist groups even more. That’s a recipe for increasing terrorism.
But where there are petro-resources at play, the U.S. is always willing to invade.
This article was posted: Friday, June 14, 2013 at 5:13 am