BY CASSIO FURTADO Herald Washington Bureau
Miami Herald
Posted on Fri, Jun. 21, 2002
WASHINGTON - Thirty-seven percent of American college students would try to evade the draft if one were called today, according to a nationwide poll released Thursday.
The survey by Republican pollster Frank Luntz comes nine months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks prompted a surge in American patriotism. It also shows that 79 percent of students do not think Western culture is superior to Arab culture.
Asked whether they would accept being drafted into military service, 35 percent said they would be willing to serve anywhere, while 21 percent said they would serve only if stationed in the United States.
Men were more willing to heed their country's call. Only 26 percent of men said they would ''likely try to evade the draft,'' but 48 percent of women said they would.
Luntz said there was a direct correlation between religion and willingness to serve in the military although he cited no data to support that. He also said students who were better informed about the U.S.-led war on terrorism were more supportive of the military.
Many college students opposed the draft during the Vietnam War in the 1960s and `70s. Even in the first months after Sept. 11, there were signs that such sentiments remained popular on campuses. In October, a student poll at the University of Houston found that while 90 percent of the university's students supported military intervention in Afghanistan to topple the Taliban regime, only 20 percent would support a draft.
In Luntz's poll, 60 percent of students agreed that developing an understanding of the values and history of other cultures and nations is a better way to prevent terrorism than investing in strong military and defense capabilities. In contrast, 79 percent supported removing Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from power, including 58 percent of those who said they probably would evade a draft.
Claude E. Welch, Jr., a professor of political science at the State University of New York at Buffalo, said the poll showed that many students were starting to understand the complexity of the conflict the United States was facing.
''Understanding other cultures is something all of them should undertake,'' he said.
The poll of 634 students from 96 four-year colleges was sponsored by Americans for Victory Over Terrorism, a project of Empower.org, a conservative group led by William Bennett, who was a top government official in the Reagan and George Bush administrations. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>