[Conservative Chicagoan]

This is not good news. It appears that many Americans don't realize what needs to be done to defeat the terrorists.

[M. T. Cicero II]

On Sept 12, I would have taken out about 20 cities, if I were president. I give credit to Mr. Bush for his restraint.

[Ancesthntr]

Maybe they will realize what needs to be done after one or more of our cities goes up in a mushroom cloud. I pray that it doesn't take that much, but I guess that 3,000+ civilians murdered in an unprovoked attack didn't hit home enough for the morons participating in this poll.

[spald]

I'm surprised, given the profile of the Sept 11 terrorists (15 of 19 Saudii), that Saudi Arabia hasn't been included in the nations that sponsor terrorism. I, for one, am glad Rudy G told that Saudi prince to take a hike (with his $10m) after the prince suggested what the U.S. should do.

[Darth Sidious]

And nearly three-quarters of those surveyed, 73 percent, said they "trust Bush to make the right decisions about the use of nuclear weapons," a CBSNews.com report on the poll said.

This is a man who can't even be fully trusted with the Constitution. If he can't do right by a scrap of paper, why should he fare better with a tactical nuke?

[Love of Country]

IRAN

[lavaroise]

Well, the worship of the Dr.Strangelove story has born its fruits. America simply does not know what it is facing from abroad, and worship of non-use of nukes in a world fast equiping with nukes to destroy the US is more dangerous than Dr.Strangelove himself.

[gg188]

This is not good news. It appears that many Americans don't realize what needs to be done to defeat the terrorists.

Yeah---the OTHER 75 PERCENT don't realize what needs to be done to defeat the terrorists.

It is going to take WILL, and it's going to take people who jealously love their way of life and who unquestionably believe in their own righteousness---in the righteousness and the rightness of what we have in America. Self-hating liberalism will just get us killed. At stake is civlization.

Remember: these towel-headed boy-buggerers have been working on this for 1400 years. Societies rise and fall. Societies based upon democracy and pluralism typically last even less long. Just because we have been around all of MY lifetime is no sign that it won't/can't end today.

History is against us.

(Thank God our fathers' generation didn't have this inane conversation in WWII or the USA wouldn't have been around after the 1940's.)

[AngrySpud]

" nine percent opposed a NON-nuclear first strike ... "

Other than a handful of principled pacifists, could the rest of them actually be American citizens?

[robertpaulsen]

"While still a mere fraction of the population..."

All polls are a mere fraction of the population. Is CBS trying to minimize the poll results? Do they have this statement on all their polls?

[alloysteel]

Nuking an enemy is a litle tough when it is difficult to pinpoint his location. But a barrage of daisy-cutters, carefully spaced over a few military installations, tends to disrupt the enemy's ability to regroup, and he loses the momentum of his drive. Plus no residual radioactivity.

[4TheFlag]

I SAY GO FOR IT

[gitmogrunt]

Consider the source of the poll: CBS.

They asked a bunch of moderates and libs to get the 25% figure.

I say "ef" them, "Lets Roll".

[Alberta's Child]

The fact that this question was even asked is an indication of just how dumb Americans really are. Most people can't even understand the complex nature of a terrorist organization that operates outside of clearly-defined national jurisdictions. As a result, "experts" in the U.S. often end up adopting the most idiotic, disconnected lines of thinking just to frame issues in a way that a voter with a double-digit IQ can understand.

"We must attack Afghanistan because of what those Saudi terrorists did to the U.S."

"We must attack Iraq from our bases in Sauidi Arabia because Iraq obviously supported those Saudi terrorists."

[evolved_rage]

Lets ask about using Daisy cutters by the hundreds. Remove the radiation threat, and I think more Amercians will agree.

[seeker41]

Where is this poll, I need to vote "YES"!

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

CBS Poll: 25% Back Preemptive U.S. Nuke Strike

i am hoping that this poll is wrong (it is cbs) but if it is not americans had better get over their fear of the term nuclear. if we had a conventional bomb which could do the same thing as a tactical nuke lets say in tora bora americans would have been wholeheartedly behind it. well we dont just think how the different the world would be today if we had nuked tora bora

[meadsjn]

many Americans don't realize what needs to be done to defeat the terrorists.

Nuking a few of them "over there" won't do anything about the couple of million of them already scattered across the United States, or the thousands currently being recruited in our cities and prisons. Unbridled immigration is the cancer which will kill this country, and neither party has the intestinal fortitude to call a spade a spade.

It may take several more (and larger) disasters for even decent Americans to recognize that Islam is incompatible with freedom; the leftists will die before they concede that truth.

[SSN558]

If the terrorists can make a dirty bomb, the U.S. can make literally millions of dirty bombs. We got tanks of liquid Sodium from cold war breeder reactors, just chock full of radio-nucloids. Why bury the stuff at Yucca mountain when you can iridate half a continent with the stuff.

[ladyinred]

This poll is a little confusing to me, the numbers just don't make a lot of sense, but I am certainly for a first strike, although it would freak me out.
The US has had the opposite policy for far too long in my opinion.

[July 4th]

Nuking Iraqi hordes in the desert is a lot more humane than what we did to them in the Gulf War. We just bulldozed over their trenches and buried them alive. Count me in the 25%.