New poll delivers brutal verdict on Trump’s Iran war: not worth it

NJ.com ^ | Jul. 30, 2026 | Manny Gómez

[Trump20162020]

Two-thirds of Americans believe the war in Iran has not been worth fighting.

A new AP-NORC poll found that roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war that began Feb. 28 is not worthwhile. The sentiment is shared by the vast majority of Democrats (87%) and independents (68%), as well as 37% of Republicans.

The AP-NORC poll, conducted July 23-27, surveyed 1,165 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

[Alberta's Child]

For one thing, I have no idea what the hell you are talking about.

Secondly, the article I linked there was posted by someone else back on April 8th.

Thirdly, the item posted on April 8th on this website wasn't the original NYT article, but a Twitter post from another "independent news site" (DropSiteNews) referencing the NYT article.

And lastly, it probably isn't obvious from reading it, we probably got halfway through that April 8th thread before I even realized that the DropSite article was actually citing a NYT piece.

I can say with almost 100% confidence that I have never posted a New York Times piece on this website as an original thread.

[Allegra]

A new AP-NORC poll…

[DiogenesLamp]

The now notorious April 2026 article by Maggie Haberman—that relayed the early February 2026 meeting (involving Netanyahu, Israeli intelligence, Trump, and various people on Trump's team like Rubio, Vance, and so on) that eventually culminated in Epic Fury—has, to the best of my knowledge, not been denied or refuted by a single person in either Trump's camp or Netanyahu's camp.

I don't know why this is even a thing for you people. There are no people out there that has better intelligence on what Iran is doing than the Israelis. They have spies all through the Iranian government and nuclear program.

Are you suggesting that the Israeli government was lying about what Iran was doing?

Was it not common knowledge that Iran was making a bomb? If so, what kind of "lie" could Israel tell that would change the fact we still needed to wipe out Iran's ability to make a bomb?

I don't know what kind of lie they could tell which would change the fact, WE STILL NEEDED TO KNOCK OUT IRAN'S NUKE PROGRAM.

So who cares about the meeting? And Why?

Jew-Hatred is the only thing that makes sense to me, and I'm not Jewish.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

The messaging has to be given, the history and the why we are doing it.

They need to make a video and air it for this younger generation.

[Danie_2023]

“”For one thing, I have no idea what the hell you are talking about.””

***

Dude... I don’t know who the hell you think you’re fooling here, but quite possibly... it may only be yourself.

You said, and I quote: “Anyone who thinks Netanyahu is “controlling Trump” certainly has a legitimate basis for this.” And then you linked to the NYSlimes’ BS...”How Trump Took the U.S. to War with Iran”... to back up your comment.

Puhleeze with the Mr. Innocent routine. It’s not working. Except for the being ‘good for a laugh’ factor, that is.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

I don't know why this is even a thing for you people. There are no people out there that has better intelligence on what Iran is doing than the Israelis. They have spies all through the Iranian government and nuclear program.

???

It's quite simple: people here are discounting the reporting on the meeting between Netanyahu and Trump from early 2026 because it was first reported in the New York Times.

Based on the fact we have no denials of said reporting, it's only reasonable to conclude that it was accurate. Nothing more, and nothing less.

Are you suggesting that the Israeli government was lying about what Iran was doing?

I do not care what Netanyahu or the Israeli government says about Iran: since it doesn't seem to self-evident, they have a vested interest in catastrophizing any possible threat that Iran poses.

What I care about is whether any wartime action engaged against a foreign country is done for the sake of our national interest, and our national interest only.

Based on how the past five months have panned out, you'd have to be a fool to conclude that our operation against Iran has panned out in favor of America or her citizens.

But hey, Israel doesn't care; they're content to let us keep fighting without getting involved.

[central_va]

Do you think this mass anti semitism was always here under the surface? I was blind sided by it coming from the right.

[Alberta's Child]

You said, and I quote: "Anyone who thinks Netanyahu is 'controlling Trump' certainly has a legitimate basis for this."

You'll notice that I didn't say they were RIGHT. I just said they had a legitimate reason to believe it, based on what is nearly 100% established as a factual report of an outlandish meeting with foreign leaders in the White House Situation Room.

[Alberta's Child]

There are no people out there that has better intelligence on what Iran is doing than the Israelis.

Are these the same Israeli's that couldn't even foresee a Hamas invasion on October 7th of 2023?

[Danie_2023]

“”You’ll notice that I didn’t say they were RIGHT. I just said they had a legitimate reason to believe it, based on what is nearly 100% established as a factual report of an outlandish meeting with foreign leaders in the White House Situation Room.””

***

Lol! Your crawfishing is duly noted. You and RandFan related, perchance?

[Fury]

You chimed in and seemingly defended AC’s use of NYT as if you ALSO consider AC’s comment sourcing the NYSlimes as the truth. So which is it? Do you think Netanyahu is controlling Trump or not?

Seemingly is what you want to believe.

I don't consider it the truth. It's one article from the NYT. But the fact that President Trump has talked with Times reporters - at length in some cases - means their stories can be taken into consideration. That doesn't mean that people should believe them - "do you own research" as they say.

And no idea on President Trump being controlled.

[Danie_2023]

“”Are these the same Israeli’s that couldn’t even foresee a Hamas invasion on October 7th of 2023?””

***

Then again, no intel agency is perfect all the time. Ours certainly has been anything but perfect over the decades, so why would anyone expect Israel’s to be perfect all the time? Their intel has always been better than ours, however... most of the time. Also, two high ups in the Israeli intel resigned over those failures. There are incompetents and ‘deliberately incompetents’ still working behind the scenes in both nations, however. That you can be sure of.

https://tjpnews.com/head-of-critical-idf-intel-unit-resigns-over-oct-7-failure/

[DiogenesLamp]

Based on how the past five months have panned out, you'd have to be a fool to conclude that our operation against Iran has panned out in favor of America or her citizens.

You would have to be someone who does not understand how nuclear weapons destroys cities, and also does not understand the Iranian leadership are religious fanatics to think this does not help the United States.

Seriously, of all the people on the planet that should never get near nuclear weapons (except on the receiving end) is the Iranian Mullahs.

[Danie_2023]

“”And no idea on President Trump being controlled.””

***

Then, you have no idea who Trump is or ‘how’ Trump is...and haven’t been paying attention.

[DiogenesLamp]

Do you think this mass anti semitism was always here under the surface? I was blind sided by it coming from the right.

I don't know what happened. Liberals have always accused the right of being anti-semitic, but I had never encountered it before recently.

I guess it hasn't been an issue until lately, and now they are coming out of the woodwork.

[DiogenesLamp]

Are these the same Israeli's that couldn't even foresee a Hamas invasion on October 7th of 2023?

Well yes it is, but I don't think anyone in the Israeli government ever regarded Hamas as the sort of existential threat that Iran is to them. You do know that Hamas and Hezbollah had been getting their money from Iran, don't you?

Israel knew absolutely that Iran would wipe them off the map if it could, and Iran was in the process of getting that capability, so they spent great effort and cost getting eyes and ears everywhere in Iran they needed them.

I'm sure they tried to do that with Hamas too, but those paranoid wackjobs are likely far harder to infiltrate than was Iran.

There are two reasonable theories about what happened October 7.

1. Israel, having been lulled into a false sense of security just never expected such an attack, and they let their guard down. (Shows you these crazy bastards *WILL* attack first, even knowing the retaliation would wipe them out.)

2. Israeli intelligence knew it was coming and let it happen for the purpose of creating the political will back home to deal with the Hamas problem once and for all.

My father believed Franklin Delano Roosevelt did the same thing with Pearl Harbor, but didn't realize the destruction would be so bad. The same may have been true of Israeli Intelligence.

I tend to lean towards the second theory, because Israeli intelligence is pretty hard core and will do very ugly unpleasant things if they see them as necessary for the benefit of Israel.

But the first theory could be true, but it's hard to believe that they could have been caught so unawares because they are known to have very good spy networks, and it's difficult to believe everyone in their network had not heard enough about the attack to warn them.

So you are trying to present the October attack as evidence of Israel's incompetence, and you want to apply this idea to their intelligence gathering apparatus in Iran.

But the two things are not the same, both in difficulty of penetrating the enemy network, and in the motivation that would make them act as they did in both cases.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

You would have to be someone who does not understand how nuclear weapons destroys cities, and also does not understand the Iranian leadership are religious fanatics to think this does not help the United States. Seriously, of all the people on the planet that should never get near nuclear weapons (except on the receiving end) is the Iranian Mullahs.

After how the past decades have unfolded, this just does not hit anymore as a realistic threat.

I do not care about Iran.

We have more important things at home to focus on.

Focusing on Iran is a distraction, at best; an outright detriment to fixing far more fundamental problems domestically at worst.

If Israel believes that Iran becoming a nuclear power is such a fundamental threat to their own existence, then fine. Let them do something about it.

Leave America out of it.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Israeli intelligence knew it was coming and let it happen for the purpose of creating the political will back home to deal with the Hamas problem once and for all.

The fact that you "lean towards" this as what happened and still want to give the Israeli government the time of day is downright awe-inspiring in the worst way.

A government that would let the people that you yourself call fanatics unleash death and atrocities on their own citizens, for the sake of geopolitical goals, is one that should be fired into the Sun.

[DiogenesLamp]

After how the past decades have unfolded, this just does not hit anymore as a realistic threat.

Well sure, because nuclear weapons stop working when idiots stop believing in them.

[Alberta's Child]

You do know that Hamas and Hezbollah had been getting their money from Iran, don't you?

I stopped reading right there. It seems we’ve had this conversation before. One of the largest indirect sources of funding for Hamas over the last 15+ years has been the Israeli government itself, which allowed the transfer of funds to Hamas from Qatar. This was done to give Israel leverage over one faction in the divided leadership of Gaza.

Historically, Hamas has been a SUNNI Islamic faction. Any funds they have received from Iran were surely dwarfed by what they’ve received from Saudi Arabia and the wealthy Sunni kingdoms in the Persian Gulf region.