Israel, U.S. only countries where majority backs military strike
A poll in more than 30 countries showed that although the majority of international public opinion opposes a massive U.S. military strike in retaliatation for last week's terror attacks in Washington and New York, in Israel and the United States the majority favors a military response against states shown to harbor terrorists. People questioned elsewhere preferred to see suspected terrorists extradited and put on trial.
"Seventy-seven percent of Israelis backed military action, while 54 percent of Americans were in favor," said Swiss polling firm Isopublic, which conducted the survey in Switzerland.
"Around 80 percent of Europeans and around 90 percent of South Americans favor extradition and a court verdict. By European comparison, calls for a tough military response were above average among the French [29 percent] and the Dutch [28 percent]," it said.
The surveys were done between September 17 and 19, around one week after the September 11 suicide attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington killed more than 6,000 people.
Clear majorities of between 70 and 80 percent supported limiting any strike to military rather than civilian targets, the survey found. Asked if their own country should support a U.S. military asssault, people in NATO countries other than Greece tended to agree.
Four out of five Danes backed the idea, followed by 79 percent in Britain and 73 percent in France. Greeks were the least enthusiastic with only 29 percent, below 53 percent in Germany and 58 percent in Norway and Spain.
The survey was carried out in Argentina, Austria, Bosnia, Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United States and Zimbabwe.