Reply #13: Yet EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT of Americans oppose any U.S. participation in [View All]

a widened Mideast war. (A poll cited recently here at DU. Other polls have put it more in the 65% range, still very high).

That's one of the ways that this poll goes wrong. To ask if something is "justified" is quite different than asking, "is it preferred?" What if you asked this, for instance, "Do you favor US and Israeli diplomatic resolution of attacks on Israel, or should Israel bomb civilians in Beirut?" I think you'd get a lot different answer (even if you didn't color it).

Further, the very title is inaccurate, "Bombing is backed by most American voters." They weren't asked if they SUPPORTED the bombing. They were asked if it is JUSTIFIED. A telling sidelight (left out of the OP above) is that one quarter of the 59% who feel that the bombing is "justified" also feel that Israel's method of dealing with the situation is "overly harsh." So there are reservations in this group. If you subtract the reservation group, you get 45%.

The article quickly segues into rightwing fulminations about God wanting the slaughter of the infidels. This is typical war profiteering corporate news monopoly framing, which is primarily aimed at convincing YOU AND ME that other Americans are nuts, that we sane and peace-minded people are in the minority, and that we might as well give up--the insane have won. This intent is suggested by a wrong fact in the article--further down--when the writer/propagandist reveals the different EU view of Israel's actions. The English and the Germans are about 75-80% opposed to Israel's attack on Lebanon, and the writer says, "Such a division across the Atlantic in Western public opinion is similar to that which opened up over whether there should be an invasion of Iraq."

This is just simply wrong. FIFTY-SIX PERCENT of Americans opposed Bush's preemptive strike on Iraq way back before the invasion in Feb. '03. They had heard Colin Powell's pack of lies. They didn't buy it--even before all the lies were exposed. That opposition has dipped only once, in the few weeks of the invasion, with US troops at max risk, then went right back up to nearly 60%, where it remained throughout the 2004 election. It's over 70% today. I'll never forget those numbers in Feb. '03. It was my first clue to the coming stolen election. The writer clearly has the agenda of painting the American people are warmongering, when they very clearly are not.

The 59% stat (that Israel is "justified") is the weak reed that all this rightwing blather sits upon. But when you look at it--and the attendant blather--a little closer, and take other information into consideration, a quite different, and much iffier interpretation emerges, thus: Americans think that the Mideast war is Israel's concern. If they're getting rocketed, they have a right to defend themselves. Keep us out of it!

And now, if you add in the one-sided disinformation that spews from our war profiteering corporate news monopolies, 24/7, about the Israel/Lebanon situation, and consider the intent to prep the American people for the "Gulf of Tonkin" incident (coming up) by which the Bush junta will jump into "Israel's war," I think you can fairly knock off 5% to 10% more (of that 59% "justified" figure). If Americans KNEW about the "Project for a New American Century"--the Bushite/NeoCon plan to invade and occupy ALL Mideast oil fields (the plan that the corporate news monopolies have black-holed, like so much else)--they would be more likely to understand what Israel is doing, as the Bushites' proxy, and be opposed to it as a deceptive scheme aimed at a *US* Mideast-wide war, in defiance of the overwhelming opinion of the American people. And if you subtract those who think Israel's reaction was "excessive," and subtract again on disinformation (poorly informed responders to the poll), you end up with only about 30% to 35% who are gungho on Israel bombing and invading Lebanon. Bush's base. The crazies covered in the article.

The article also plays games with another statistic. "The support for Israel of 50 million American evangelicals chimes with the reality of the Administration’s foreign policy." When you have authoritarian, greedy, white, male, rightwing preachers spewing their poison to cowed congregations, I don't think you can take anything for granted about what the members of those congregations really think. They are being brainwashed. They are being lied to and disinformed. They may be dependent on rightwing fathers and husbands--or employers. Their daily bread may be an item of extortion. I think this figure is GREATLY exaggerated. There is no support for it in the article. It seems to come from this nutcase, Hagee (who talks about “God’s foreign policy statement” towards Jews). Are we to trust foaming-at-the-mouth rightwing preachers on their level of support?

The article implies that "support for Israel" among these "50 million" is equivalent to support for bombing and violence and more war. That's a big assumption. "Chimes with..."--whatever that means. There is no way to know what those "50 million" really think, except to poll them away from their preachers and patriarchal husbands.

The article is Times of London--a rightwing, warmongering Tory rag.

RestoreGore prefaces this article with...

"The Politics of Fear, Religion, and Militarism have won.
"The brainwashing is complete.
"Where has America gone?"

I think we ought to resist scare tactics like this, and become more alert to how war profiteering corporate news monopolies are manipulating our perceptions of the world, of other human beings, and of our fellow Americans. All other polls show Americans to be overwhelminglyly peace and justice-minded, progressive, and better informed than anyone gives them credit for. And I think there is a conscious, deliberate effort in the corporate press to paint us otherwise, contrary to the facts, in order to disempower and demoralize us. This shouldn't surprise us, since they have also colluded on stolen elections, the mechanism by which our rightful influence on our government has been removed.