Home > Poll for Military Papers Finds Troops’ Support for War Plunging

Poll for Military Papers Finds Troops’ Support for War Plunging

by Open-Publishing - Tuesday 2 January 2007
4 comments

Edito Wars and conflicts Governments USA

by E&P Staff

NEW YORK It’s often written or said in the media that, despite public opposition to the Iraq war here at home, military personnel strongly back President Bush’s handling of the conflict. But a poll for the Military Times newspapers, released Friday, shows that more troops disapprove of the president’s handling of the war than approve of it.

It came on the day that at least four more Americans died in the war, pushing the monthly total to 107, the high point for the year — and the total figure to 2,997, near the milestone of 3,000.

Barely one in three service members approve of the way the president is handling the war, according to the new poll for the four papers (Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Times). In another startling finding, only 41% now feel it was the right idea to go to war in Iraq in the first place.

And the number who feel success there is likely has shrunk from 83% in 2004 to about 50% today. A surprising 13% say there should be no U.S. troops in Iraq at all.

This comes even though only about one in ten called their overall political views "liberal."

The annual mail survey was conducted Nov. 13 through Dec. 22. Among the respondents, two in three have deployed at least once to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Nearly three-quarters of the respondents think today’s military is stretched too thin to be effective.

"The poll has come to be viewed by some as a barometer of the professional career military," the Military Times wrote on Friday. "It is the only independent poll done on an annual basis. The margin of error on this year’s poll is plus or minus 3 percentage points."

While approval of Bush’s handling of the war has plunged, approval for his overall performance as president remains at 52%.

The poll also found that while the personnel believe the public has a positive view of them, they are convinced the media do not — only 39 % said they think the media have a favorable view of the troops.

"While President Bush always portrays the war in Iraq as part of the larger war on terrorism, many in the military are not convinced," the Military Times reported. "The respondents were split evenly — 47 percent both ways — on whether the Iraq war is part of the war on terrorism. The rest had no opinion."

E&P Staff

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/e...

Forum posts

  • Well finally they are coming slowly to their senses. Maybe Henry Kissinger was wrong when he said "soldiers are stupid dumb animals, to be used to fight the elitis’s wars"....

    Maybe they are not ALL stupid dumb animals.....

  • I can hardly believe the troops actually supported the war at all. "I LOVE being in the line of fire! YAY, this is fun!!! Hooray for bush!"

    I suppose most of the troops were on the "Al Qaeda did 9/11" trip. Obviously, they fell for the U.S. government’s "official story" about the Iraq / Saddam Hussain link to 9/11. Most of us have been waiting at the evolutionary bellcurve for years now, and the sheeple are finally catching up.

    Kind of a tortoise and the hare story.

  • Watch the movie "Sir, No Sir" about how it was really the troops in Viet Nam refusing to go on missions that finally ended that war. They started an air bombing campaign, and then finally pulled out altogether. It is truly magnificent to see the courage of very young men to stand up to senior officers and refuse to act illegally and immorally in abusing those citizens in another country. I am in awe of their courage. Bring the troops home safe.

    • It is quite easy to see why war criminal Kissinger was going to be picked by the Bush/Cheney killing machine to "investigate" 9-11. Criminals of a feather FK together and I doubt there are too many people like Henry associated with U.S. corporate interests who have more innocent blood on their hands. 3 MILLION civilians are said to have been murdered in Vietnam, and for WHAT??? Will it take the spilling of blood of 3 million innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan and who knows where next, and tens of thousands of our very own loved ones before the Oil Elitists have satisfied there lust for blood and oil??? I personally know many good men and women in our armed forces and I know if they would have realized they would be fighting for Dick Cheney’s retirement plan, and for Haliburtons stock price, and for Exxon executives 200 million dollar bonus, and for Israel, they would have never joined up. I have more respect for one soldier willing to stand up to power and say NO, you lied and I will not murder any more innocent people, than I do a whole platoon staring down and engaging the most heavily armed formidable "enemy".