Outside the Beltway links to a new Rasmussen poll that finds the majority of Americans want to throw down over North Korea’s missile launch over the weekend.
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.
On its face, this is shudder inducing. The implications of an attack on North Korea has serious spillover implications for South Korea, Japan and puts us in an uncomfortable position vis-a-vis China. I though the public would have taken from the Iraq war that military action is fraught with complexity. It seems that the “Axis of Evil” framing is still deeply entrenched in the collective American psyche.
Of course this also highlights the limits of survey research. Here was Rasmussen’s question:
“If North Korea launches a long-range missile, should the United States take military action to eliminate North Korea’s ability to launch missiles?”
I’d submit that this question is priming a military response. It’s pretty logical to finish the sentence “North Korea launches a long-range missile” with “at us” rather than “that fell harmlessly into the ocean” or “into space” or wherever. It’s easy to draw a conclusion that the public is reactionary and incapable of informing foreign policy. However, without proper contextualization, who wouldn’t want the U.S. to intervene to prevent North Korea from launching a strike on the United States?
I’d like to see a poll that asks the question differently.
Comments 2
rkatclu — April 7, 2009
Graduates of the Randy Newman school of political science?
Devin — April 7, 2009
I am floored that Americans would even consider voting on a poll that would suggest war with a nation like North Korea! To begin, North Korea would be much harder to conquer than Iraq. I cannot believe that Americans are in favor of going to war with North Korea when we are complaining of being involved in a war with Iraq. If Americans are so upset about the length of wars being too long, should we just begin sending Nuclear Missiles across the globe? I am just amazed at the American public...My personal views would be to engage in a war effort if the North Korean's attempt to shoot a missile at the United States or one of our allies. I think that the United State has already tied itself up with more than it should have in the Iraq War. The United States should have learned our lesson in the Korean War, and then again in the Vietnam War, and one final time in the recent Iraq War. I don't know...Maybe four times a charm?