WASHINGTON – Americans back a newly brokered nuclear deal with Iran by a 2-to-1 margin and are very wary of the United States resorting to military action against Tehran even if the historic diplomatic effort falls through, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Tuesday.
The findings were rare good news in the polls for US President Barack Obama, whose approval ratings have dropped in recent weeks because of the botched rollout of his signature healthcare reform law.
According to the Reuters/Ipsos survey, 44 percent of Americans support the interim deal reached between Iran and six world powers in Geneva, and 22 percent oppose it.
While indicating little trust among Americans toward Iranian intentions, the survey also underscored a strong desire to avoid new US military entanglements after long, costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Even if the Iran deal fails, 49 percent want the United States to increase sanctions and 31 percent think it should launch further diplomacy. But only 20 percent want US military force to be used against Iran.
The survey’s results suggest that a US public weary of war could help bolster Obama’s push to keep Congress from approving new sanctions that would complicate the next round of negotiations for a final agreement with Iran.
“This absolutely speaks to war fatigue, where the American appetite for intervention – anywhere – is extremely low,” Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said. “It could provide some support with Congress for the arguments being made by the administration.”
Tehran accepted temporary restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for limited relief from tough economic sanctions under the Geneva deal, which the White House sees as a “first step” toward ensuring that Iran cannot develop an atomic bomb.
Obama and his aides are casting the Iran deal as the best alternative to a new Middle East conflict as they push back against skeptical lawmakers and close US ally Israel who accuse Washington of giving up too much for too little.
A number of lawmakers, especially Republicans, have insisted they will try to enact stiffer new sanctions, which the Obama administration says would poison the negotiating atmosphere during the six months allotted to achieve a long-term accord.
Support for Israel remains high
Reflecting deep suspicions over Iran’s sincerity after more than three decades of estrangement between the two countries, the poll shows that 63 percent of Americans believe Tehran’s nuclear program is intended to develop a bomb – although Iran says the project is only for civilian purposes.
Despite that, 65 percent of those polled agreed that the United States “should not become involved in any military action in the Middle East unless America is directly threatened.” Only 21 percent disagreed with the statement.
There was every indication, however, that American public support for Israel remained high despite Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s denunciation of the Iran deal as a “historic mistake” and new strains in US-Israeli relations.
Fifty percent supported the notion that the United States “should use its military power to defend Israel against threats to its security, no matter where they come from.” Thirty-one percent disagreed.
The precision of Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll – which was conducted from Sunday through Tuesday with 591 respondents – has a credibility interval of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
In Israel, a Channel 2 poll conducted Tuesday night showed that a majority of Israelis backed Prime Minister Netanyahu’s recent criticism of the Obama administration’s Iranian policy, with 58% saying the criticism was justified, and 28% saying it was not.
In addition, most Israelis – 60% – said that the agreement endangered Israel, while 25% said it did not.
Herb Keinon contributed to this report.
dweller Said:
Dweller Darlin, at last we have come to a true meeting of our minds!!!!!!!!!
That leaves 34% percent unaccounted for.
It’s important to bear in mind that polls actually have TWO functions, not one:
A. the stated function, which is to ascertain public opinion; and
B. the unstated (but actually more prevalent) function, which is to mold, shape, and create opinion.
There’s a relationship BETWEEN the two functions:
It’s when they are determining opinion that they establish their credibility.
But it’s when they are creating opinion that they make their money.
The more CRED they can point to, the more BUCKS they can command when somebody wants to hire them for an opinion-shaping project.
When they’re making their money, NOBODY’s polls are worth a tinker’s damn from the perspective of determining opinion, because this is when whatever CRED they’ve been able to garner is being put to work at creating & shaping opinion.
They select & phrase & order their questions — and choose their samplings — in whatever manner will most likely produce the result the sponsor seeks.
That, frankly, is what this Reuters poll smelled like to me.
OTOH, a Rasmussen poll that was also recently released found opinion much more evenly split: 44% pro, 42% con. Rasmussen tends to be most reliable because he makes a practice of polling not just anybody, but likely voters — viz., those who take a minimally active interest in the common political life of the country (and in larger samplings than other pollsters) — and he typically has a much smaller margin of error than any other pollster. Discussed this in more detail on another thread.
As for the current polling generally, it’s going to take a little while for the country to feel itself out & decide what it thinks about the Iran deal; the matter is still very much in flux.
— and I strongly suspect that the Reuters poll was intended to influence the outcome while it’s IN flux.
@ oldjerry:
Oldjerry Darlin, do you blwo out you Hanukah candles before you light them????
@ honeybee:
Things do change but not always for the better.
oldjerry Said:
The majority of American believed in Obamacare!!! Thing change!!!Darlin
So the majority of Americans are in agreement with the deal with Iran. This is the same majority that voted that pro Iran , Muslim Brotherhood supporter into the White House twice. Beware of majority opinion.
@ mar55:
Oh my goodness….lol here I will send you a different one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvY337zKttA&feature=player_detailpage
@ Yidvocate:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyKWUpSMegE&feature=player_detailpage
@ Laura:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSJCSR4MuhU&feature=player_detailpage
Yidvocate Said:
Goble-tov to you you frozen old grum of a Canadian!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ Laura:
Isn’t the official Israeli doctrine just the opposite, “Restraint (read – appeasement) is strength”? Although I don’t think they are so stupid as to proffer that such “strength” will lead to peace or do they?
@ Yidvocate:
Apparently they do not recall Reagan’s motto “peace through strength”.
Stupid, stupid war-weary Americans! Can’t they see that this “deal” is a recipe that guarantees war! The sanctions finally hit the level where the Mullahs were drawn to their knees. Why else would they have now decided that they wanted to talk? Their economy is devastated, the people were about to revolt and their end was clearly in sight. For once BB got it right. The deal should have been your economy or your bombs – you choose. Instead the Islamist-Enable-In-Chief has take the pressure off the Mullahs for really nothing at all thus enabling them to reach the nuclear finish line. The only thing that can stop them now is Israeli military action and that means war.
Obama counted on Americans being war-weary. Unfortunately, our enemies aren’t war-weary. So our retreat from military involvement in the Middle East won’t mean we will be spared any more wars. In fact it is certain we will be involved in a much greater war down the road. We’ve learn nothing from history, be it Munich 1938 or 9/11.
Obama also knows the average person’s ignorance about the science of nuclear power means the American public won’t understand that Iran will not be prevented from developing nuclear weapons with this deal.
the big mistake is BB’s by hanging his policy on Obamas’s actions. Any move Israel makes now, even a unilateral attack on Iran, will be painted as the Jews dragging the US into war. BB and Obama have the same character, they are both appeasers, they both cave after making blowhard statements, two peas in a pod; but with one winner.
Big deal – the Brits in the 1930s also backed appeasement. No one wants war and war is not a voter-getter.
Israel is not bound by the views of a foreign country or by a very bad deal to which it was not a party to.
Israel should pursue its own vital interests regardless of what others think. In the long run, the Jewish State and the world will both be better off.