[lbo-talk] Iraq war "clearer" to Americans than WW 2

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Apr 7 09:28:01 PDT 2003


[sure is getting harder to do optimistic readings of the poll numbers]

WSJ.com / OPINION JOURNAL from THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Editorial Page

BEST OF THE WEB TODAY

BY JAMES TARANTO

Friday, April 4, 2003 5:00 p.m. EST

CLEARER THAN WORLD WAR II

PollingReport.com presents some fascinating historical poll results. During five different wars, Americans were asked, "Do you feel that you have a clear idea of what this war is all about--that is, what we are fighting for?" Here are the results, arranged in ascending order of the proportion answering "yes":

Date War Yes No DK/NA

May 1967 Vietnam 49% 48% 3%

November 1942 World War II 73% 27% 0%

December 1990 Gulf War 74% 24% 2%

March 2003 Iraqi Freedom 81% 18% 1%

November 2001 War on Terror 89% 10% 1%

This week's Village Voice, to take an example at random, has an article by Sydney Schanberg, who complains that the White House "kept changing its story" in the run-up to hostilities. Funny how the story is clear to four out of five Americans anyway.



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