37 Percent of College Students Would Evade Draft

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>>37 percent of college students would evade draft
>>
>>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
>
>While this is good news, take anything from Luntz with a grain of 
>salt. He was reprimanded by the American Association for Public 
>Opinion Research for not disclosing questions or techniques, and he 
>pissed off the Republicans by feeding them very  misleading polls on 
>the Contract With America. (Basically he'd asked people if they were 
>against waste in government; when they said yes, he interpreted this 
>as support for the Contract. Newt & Co. bought it, much to their 
>eventual regret.) And he did the famous more people believe in UFOs 
>than Social Security poll - without disclosing that respondents 
>wanted SS, they just doubted its longevity.
>
>Doug

I thought about that, too, but wouldn't Luntz have framed the 
question and massaged the results so that the percentage of would-be 
draft resisters would look lower rather than higher?

On the other hand, though, the article also says: "He also said 
students who were better informed about the U.S.-led war on terrorism 
were more supportive of the military."  Maybe the poll results are 
designed to encourage more spending on consultants and PR firms to 
sell the war better.
-- 
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/>