Posted on 03/04/2015 6:48:56 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It looks like the ideas of soft power and leading from behind aren’t quite as popular on the home front these days.
By a wide margin, Americans voters support sending ground troops to fight Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.
Sixty-two percent said they support boots on the ground, while 30 percent said they do not. The response comes after well-publicized deaths of the group’s hostages, including the American captive Kayla Mueller, and the revelation that a militant in their beheading videos known as “Jihadi John” came from a well-educated, middle-class background in the U.K.
Americans are not inclined to change the U.S. policy of not paying ransoms for hostages, according to the poll. Seventy-two percent said the government should never pay.
There’s really no mystery here. Barack Obama has bet his foreign policy on the assumption that the American people are sick and tired of nearly one and a half decades of war. And to a certain extent, that’s still a valid assumption. I think the polls which ask about putting troops in other places still reflect that we’re not in a very interventionist state of mind at the moment. But ISIS is different, and even if it’s precisely what the terrorist monsters want (it is…) they are getting the desired response from American citizens.
The game changed the moment Jihadi John dragged a knife across the throat of an American and captured it on film. We may be tired of war in general, but America doesn’t put up with that. Unfortunately for the White House, Barack Obama has stiffened his back for so long and remained wedded to the idea of leading from behind that it would be difficult for him to turn around now and send in The Big Red One. This disconnect between the Oval Office and main street is no doubt what explains his current approval rating on the specific topic of foreign policy. At a negative rate of 53.5 to 37.5, Obama is so far underwater that he needs scuba gear just to real the poll results.
In the end, though, our future on this front rests squarely on the shoulders of the President and nobody else. If they had a serious interest in doing so, Congress could declare all out war with a new resolution, but that changes nothing. The Legislative branch can declare war, but only the Executive can wage it, and thus far Barack Obama shows no stomach for launching a major offensive to wipe ISIS off the face of the Earth.
We fought Nazism in north africa, France, etc. We can do the same with ISIS. In this sort of war, borders don’t mean a lot.
And 8 percent wonder who Isis is.
Death to Daesh!
ESPECIALLY against Islamists.
I’m still not sold on us going into Syria. We need to kick ISIS out of Iraq. I think if we take Mosul, that will go a long way in driving them out of Iraq. I’m just not sure if we should go into Syria to do it. Keep them bottled up there, help the Kurds in the northern part of Syria but that’s about it. I don’t trust any of the other groups in Syria.
We need a bigger vision than just defeating ISIS. The West needs to apologetically declare a holy war in the name of Jesus and wage that war across the Moslem world. It should be a war for conquest and conversion using whatever means we need to use to be victorious.
Sometimes there exists a moral outrage so heinous, and so hard to oppose by those immediately facing it, that we are morally compelled to intervene.
wait til they hit the USA herself—Then it will be 100%. It will be like Pearl Harbor was in 1941. Invest in Flags now! Good news—we will all get uniforms. Bad news—rationing and a draft. Good news their will be jobs for all and the illegals will run home least they be drafted (some will sign up—I imagine).
I doubt the statistics. Could be wrong. Perhaps the agitation of Christians being persecuted and killed in the name of Islam has extracted sympathy, but it’s more likely a push poll.
Bomb them into next week. Then repeat. Ground troops only for mop up.
Alas, destroying the village to save it doesn’t work. I presume ISIS is well-blended into the general population.
no we don’t
Well stated. The only way I favor this is overwhelming force and rules of engagement that protect our service members lives.
Count me in the 30% until, at least, we get a new commander in chief. The rules of engagement imposed by BO, Val Jay, Samantha Powers and Susan Rice would be so restrictive as to guarantee little but American deaths.
If we get a President like Cruz or Walker, then I would support ground troops.
Until then, I think Congress should seek to send aid to the Kurds and ONLY the Kurds. Real aid: anti-tank weapons, mortars, sniper rifles (including anti-material 50cal), night vision, body armor, ammo, decent small arms. Also JTAC personnel, for air support.
It’s a tough position for them. Snitch, and you’ll get beheaded. Hard to trust someone to protect you when your current oppressors are in place precisely because that someone reneged on protecting you.
Read _American_Sniper_; gives a good account of how long it took to gain the trust of the locals that they would turn on the “terrorist next door”. And then we left.
I’m all for going in and eradicating ISIS before it spreads thru the region (there’s nothing else to stop it, and both morally & diplomatically we are obligated to), but I’m afraid it will have to burn itself out - which will take generations.
I’m in with the 30% until the mission is better defined
- objective
- how is victory claimed
- what are the rules of engagement
- what is to be done with POWs
- how will it be paid for
- The US military MUST be in control of all of its units all the time (no UN leadership)
I am deeply uncomfortable with giving Obama the right to engage in war with an undefined objective and an administration that believes military combatants should be treated as criminals with the rights of US citizens.
Count me in the 30%.
I don’t think a pile of dead American bodies is worth it for protecting Muslims from other Muslims ... and that is precisely what we’d be doing.
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