American
Support For Iraq
War In Sharp Decline
By William Fisher
18 April, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Only 20 per cent of Americans
thinks President George W. Bush's goal of spreading democracy to other
countries is "very important". And even among Republicans,
only three out of ten favor pursuing this goal "strongly",
with most of the erosion in Republican confidence occurring in the more
religious wing of the party.
These are some of the highlights of the second in a continuing series
of surveys monitoring Americans' confidence in U.S. foreign policy conducted
by the nonprofit research organization Public Agenda. The survey results
were described in an article in the journal "Foreign Affairs"
by the organization's chairman, opinion research guru Daniel Yankelovich.
The first survey, conducted in June of last year, found that the war
in Iraq had reached a "tipping point" - which the survey defines
as the moment at which a large portion of the public begins to demand
that the government address its concerns.
The 2006 survey found that public confidence in U.S. foreign policy
has declined since then. The public has become less confident in Washington's
ability to achieve its goals in Iraq and Afghanistan and hunt down terrorists.
Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed said they think that U.S. relations
with the rest of the world are on the wrong track (compared to 37 percent
who think the opposite), and 51 percent said they are disappointed by
the country's relations with other countries (compared to 42 percent
who are proud of them), the survey reported.
Yankelovich reported that the war in Iraq continues to be the foreign
policy issue foremost in the public's mind, and respondents consistently
say that the war, along with the threat of terrorism, are the most important
problems facing the U.S. in its dealings with the rest of the world.
Concern about mounting U.S. casualties in Iraq is particularly widespread
-- 82 percent of respondents to the June 2005 survey said they cared
deeply about the issue; in January 2006, 83 percent said they did.
Although the level and intensity of concern about Iraq has remained
fairly stable, the public's appraisal of how well the United States
is meeting its objectives there has eroded slightly. Last summer, 39
percent of respondents gave the government high marks on this issue;
33 percent did in January.
The erosion, moreover, comes almost entirely from Republicans: 61 percent
gave the government an A or a B on Iraq in the first survey, but only
53 percent did in the second. Confidence in U.S. policy on Iraq is also
down significantly among those who regularly attend religious services,
who also show rising levels of concern about casualties.
Yankelovich says one reason for the downward trend is skepticism about
how truthful Washington has been about the reasons for invading Iraq.
He notes that 50 percent of respondents said they feel they were misled
-- the highest level of mistrust measured in the survey.
Another source of skepticism may be more troublesome for the government:
only 22 percent of Americans surveyed said they feel that their government
has the ability to create a democracy in Iraq.
Foreign policy observers contacted by us found few surprises in the
survey.
Brian J. Foley, a professor at Florida Coastal School of Law, told us,
"The American public is, finally, coming around to realizing that
the so-called mission of spreading democracy abroad requires the destruction
of democracy here at home. War results in increased secrecy, growth
of big government and its control, and an erosion of civil liberties.
Here we're getting that, and an enormous government budget deficit,
and a reduction in public services, to boot."
Samer Shehata, Professor
of Arab Politics at Georgetown University, worries that the survey results
indicate that the U.S. will be pressured to "withdraw from Iraq
quickly and - most likely - without sufficient planning and preparation
for the consequences." He told us, "Rather than working early
to 'internationalize' the occupation and rebuilding, the Bush administration
has been unwilling to let other countries - including the UN, the EU,
NATO and neighboring Arab and Muslim countries - play a part in Iraq
and therefore become vested in Iraq's stability and reconstruction.
The US now faces no good options. Withdrawing quickly will likely lead
to the worsening of the situation while the US continued presence does
not seem to be - even gradually - producing stability."
And Patricia Kushlis, a veteran
of the U.S. Information Service, said she finds it "particularly
interesting to see that 70 percent of the administration's stalwart
supporters - and especially the religious right - now realize that exporting
democracy is an impracticable objective". She told us, "This
sea change in U.S. public opinion could well impact the outcome of the
November midterm elections and send the Republican-majority Congress
packing".
But Edward Herman, professor emeritus of the University of Pennsylvania,
questioned not the survey's findings, but its basic premise. He told
us, "One problem with all these opinion surveys is that they never
question that the goal of the Bush Administration is democracy -- which
I believe to be a complete fraud."
"In some cases the Bushies, like earlier leaders, would like to
see a democratic façade, but never real democracy, which, in
say Iraq, would see the U.S. and its military bases thrown out on their
ear," he said.
On the issue of U.S. relations with the rest of the world, only about
a third of Americans surveyed (35 percent) said they think the U.S.
government could do a lot to establish good relations with moderate
Muslims -- but almost two-thirds (64 percent) nevertheless gave the
government poor marks because of its failure to do so.
Nearly a third of respondents said they "worry a lot" about
the rise of Islamic extremism around the world (31 percent) and the
possibility that U.S. actions in the Middle East have aided the recruitment
of terrorists (33 percent).
Almost half (45 percent) said they believe that Islam encourages violence,
and survey respondents estimated that about half or more of all Muslims
in the world are anti-American. But a clear majority (56 percent) continued
to have confidence that improved communications with the Muslim world
would reduce hatred of the United States.
But Yankelovich reports that Americans may also be getting used to the
notion that they are not well loved abroad. A majority of respondents
(65 percent) realize that the rest of the world sees the United States
in a negative light.
While the Americans surveyed have fairly clear ideas about U.S. foreign
policy priorities, U.S. political parties differ on the desirability
of promoting democracy in other countries (30 percent of Republicans
surveyed supported this goal, compared to only 16 percent of Democrats).
But even a majority of Republicans have little stomach for this priority
of the Bush administration, the survey found.
A majority of the U.S. public supports the ideal of spreading democracy
(53 percent of respondents said they believe that "when more countries
become democratic there will be less conflict"), but Americans
remain skeptical that an "activist" U.S. policy can contribute
much to this outcome. A majority of those surveyed (58 percent) said
they feel "democracy is something that countries only come to on
their own."
The survey results bear an eerie similarity to those that were reported
during the mid to later stages of the Vietnam War. It was the gathering
antiwar mood of the American public that finally made that adventure
unsustainable. And many are predicting that U.S. intervention in Iraq
will suffer a similar ignominious end.