There are times when I wonder whether I haven’t outlived my century and reading the reports of the recent Rasmussen poll that found a solid majority of Americans supported military action against North Korea in response to North Korea’s satellite launch/missile test/whatever it was:
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of U.S. voters nationwide favor a military response to eliminate North Korea’s missile launching capability. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 15% of voters oppose a military response while 28% are not sure.
[…]
Support for a military response comes from 66% of Republicans, 52% of Democrats and 54% of those not affiliated with either major political party. There is no gender gap on the issue as a military response is favored by 57% of men and 57% of women.
was one of them. As usual I find my position a rather lonely one.
The most common reaction among progressive bloggers seems to be simple denial:
This reveals how useless polling on obscure issues can be. Rasmussen would have us believe that more people want us to go to war with North Korea than favor the current wars in either Iraq or Afghanistan. This is farcically stupid; although it appears that Newt Gingrich came out in favor of a preventive strike on North Korea, it’s a position that’s held by approximately zero policymakers on either side of the aisle.
challenging the sample, the method, the wording, the Rasmussen organization, or the respondents.
Since most Right Blogosphere bloggers seem to believe that the North Korean missile program presents a more direct threat to us than I do, my guess is that they’re in the 57%.
James Joyner’s reaction was a little more temperate than mine:
This demonstrates, yet again, why we don’t conduct foreign policy via polling. Most of the experts believe the consequences of a military attack on the nuclear-armed power would be far worse than doing nothing and that, while undesirable, this is something we can live with.
although I agree with him completely that at this point doing nothing is the better option.
However, I do have a quibble with James. I don’t agree that the poll’s respondents “want to go to war with North Korea”. I think that unlike me or, apparently, James, at this point most Americans don’t equate “military action” and “going to war”.
This is what comes of an unbroken chain from Harry Truman to George W. Bush of American presidents going to war without declaring war and the divorce of the American people from the American military. Unlike a half century ago most American men today never perform military service and most Americans have nobody in their families in the military, maybe even nobody they know.
Using military force is war.
Mostly I blame the Congress, primarily the Senate. The Senate needs to stop weaseling around on matters of war and peace. No more authorizations to use military force. Either declare war and support the effort or prevent the president from waging war without Congress’s support. That’s what they’re elected to do.
I don’t think the American people have any idea what war with NK would mean. I’d love to see how South Koreans poll on this: it would be their war far more than ours and I suspect their thinking is a bit more focused than ours.
I don’t know what the South Koreans think right this minute but I do know that fairly recent polls have shown that the South Koreans see North Korea as significantly less threatening than we do. And that they’re horrified by the idea of re-unification with the North.
I’m afraid I’m now convinced that our main criteria when we elect our national representatives is to make sure our states or districts get good slices of military procurement in times of war and civil procurement in times of peace. I don’t think most of our legislators understand much of the world beyond that.
Speaking only for myself, I’m in favor of completely ignoring North Korea. That would hurt their leaders far worse than all the empty declarations of world bodies.