Image by Joffley
Most of the time I’m angry US elites pay so little attention to popular opinion, but sometimes I’m glad:
American voters across lines of age, party and gender support a military approach to eliminate North Korea‘s nuclear capabilities, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey released Sunday morning — and conducted in the two days prior to North Korea’s test missile launch on Saturday.
The poll shows that 57 percent of all voters support such a response, while just 15 percent oppose it. A military response is favored by a majority in both parties — 66 percent of Republicans and 52 percent of Democrats — and by 57 percent of both men and women.
A majority of respondents, 51 percent, also oppose the U.S. offering economic aid to North Korea in exchange for it agreeing to dismantle its nuclear program.
Uh huh. North Korea has a very large army, poised at the border with South Korea. Strikes against North Korea would lead to retaliation against South Korea. In this case, the capital, Seoul. North Korea, unlike Iraq, has a lot of chemical weapons. They are pointed at Seoul. If the North Korean army decided to shell Seoul, there would be huge loss of life. If they invaded, and there’s a good chance they would, they would overrun Seoul, and, since I know most Americans could care less if hundreds of thousands of foreigners die, they’d also overrun US forces in South Korea, killing thousands.
The only thing that might allow an attack to work would be heavy use of nuclear weapons. I believe that would meet the definition of irony.
senecal
The irony is that when the elite decide to CHANGE a long-standing policy, they have to re-educate the masses whom they’ve carefully kept ignorant all the previous years. They need to develop something like the terror-alert color code system, whereby they simply announce that N Korea is now orange, not red.
mpower1952
I spent the Bush years yelling about the f’ing idiots in this country. I don’t know why I expected things to change now that Obama is in charge. There are still too many f’ing idiots in this country.
I hope Obama and Hillary can soon accomplish some major diplomacy coups so that people can see that force is not the answer to all problems.
And we wonder why three policemen were killed in PA and 13 innocent people were slaughtered in NY.
thingsComeUndone
The American people don’t know much about other countries Ian in our ignorance our first response is always we can take them.
A friend of mine was on the boarder in the army. He said the North Koreans liked to play jokes like driving a whole bunch of tanks full speed at the American troops on the border without warning….and then stopping at the border.
I think Americans might react different if the question was phrased different like are you willing to pay higher taxes to fight a war with North Korea?
Americans will always say yes we should fight. We are a strong nation and proud of it. But we are also a broke nation that poll was phrased to get a certain pro war response.
Ask the same people who are pro war if they are willing to personally pay more taxes to fight the war and their answers will change.
Ask Americans whats more important North Korea or fixing our own economy and they will answer fixing the economy.
We think with our wallets but we can be led by our emotions into fights before our brain kicks in.
Oaktown Girl
I think the biggest factor besides ignorance is that war and its bloody consequences have been painstakingly kept from American eyes (not just TV, but newspapers and magazines as well) since the Vietnam War. That’s at least 3 generations of Americans who’ve come up through elementary school and high school never having to concern themselves over a draft, and never having images come across their TV screens daily showing the unvarnished horrors of military conflict.
Now, to the factors I’ve already listed above, add the Reagan propaganda years. Then mix in a heaping dose of the whole 1980’s-early 90’s Hollywood re-telling of how we could have/should have “won” in Vietnam if not for the gov’ment and those damn libruls. But wait, there’s more! Stir in a toxic dose of the Grenada, Panama, and Kuwait invasions, which were not only sanitized for American viewers, but glorified on the new 24 hour cable news network(s). “Say, that looks just as fun and easy as a video game, doesn’t it, kids? And we’re liberating oppressed peoples and spreading Democracy! Hooray for us!”
In sum, it’s easy to understand why so many Americans believe military engagement is no big deal. Besides, we’re always the good guys, right?