Public opinion shifts towards war hawks

Jim heartfield jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk
Wed Apr 7 00:29:40 PDT 1999


In message <370AC572.C93E30EE at sprintmail.com>, Gar Lipow <lipowg at sprintmail.com> writes
>Those who support NATO -- gleefully or reluctantly should be happy.
>According to the polls (for whatever they are worth) U.S. public
>opinion has shifted towards your side. According to ABC/Washington
>Post poll 68% suppport the air strikes, and 55% percent support the
>use of ground troops. According to the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll
>62% support air strikes; 55% percent support ground troops; 73%
>support ground troops as a "last resort".

The opinion shift that Gar reports is mirrored here in the UK too. However, I would take it with a pinch of salt. I can't remember a war where the public were so disengaged from the political process. Even the Gulf War came after a considerable preparation of public opinion. This one has just come out of the blue for most people. My guess would be that the polls register an acquiescence to the official viewpoint, but no active enthusiasm. British polls on war often ask the question 'would you be willing to die for your country?'. This is one percentage that just keeps on going down, no matter how jingoistic the press.

-- Jim heartfield



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