Posted on 08/26/2005 8:52:08 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AP) - An overwhelming number of people say critics of the Iraq war should be free to voice their objections - a rare example of widespread agreement about a conflict that has divided the nation along partisan lines.
Nearly three weeks after a grieving California mother named Cindy Sheehan started her anti-war protest near President Bush's Texas ranch, nine of 10 people surveyed in an AP-Ipsos poll say it's OK for war opponents to publicly share their concerns about the conflict.
"Part of the Constitution is the First Amendment," said Mike Malone, a salesman from Odessa, Fla. "We have the right to disagree with the government."
With the U.S. death toll in Iraq climbing past 1,870 with an especially bloody August, the public's opinion of the Bush administration's handling of the war has been eroding over the past two years.
Overall attitudes about the war - while negative - haven't changed dramatically through the summer and a solid majority, 60 percent, want U.S. troops to stick it out until Iraq is stable.
The poll found that most people disapprove of the Bush administration's conduct of the war and think the war was a mistake. Half believe it has increased the threat of terrorism. Democrats overwhelmingly question the president's policies, while Republicans overwhelmingly support them.
Public doubts about the war have gotten new attention since Sheehan, who lost her son Casey in Iraq last year, took her protest to Crawford, Texas, on Aug. 6.
Hundreds of fellow protesters have been drawn to Camp Casey, named for her 24-year-old son. Sheehan's protest sparked hundreds of vigils around the country a week ago.
The AP-Ipsos poll found that Republicans are the most likely to disapprove of people voicing opposition to the war.
Retiree Ruth Carver of Sellersburg, Ind., said she disagrees with Sheehan's protest. "I think her son would be ashamed of her," said Carver, a Republican. "If I don't like what's going on, I can go to the polls every four years."
The poll found that 37 percent approve of the way the Bush administration is conducting the war. Three-fourths of Republicans and only 15 percent of Democrats in the poll approve.
Support for Bush's handling of the war was stronger among those who know someone who has served in Iraq - almost half - compared with about a quarter of those who don't know someone who served in Iraq.
More than half of those polled, 53 percent, say the United States made a mistake in going to war in Iraq. That level of opposition is about the same as the number who said that about Vietnam in August 1968, six months after the Tet offensive - the massive North Vietnamese attack on South Vietnamese cities that helped turn U.S. opinion against that war. Various polls have shown that erosion of war support has been faster in Iraq than during the Vietnam War in the 1960s.
"Our attention span is simply shorter," said Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Our willingness to put up with a difficult military situation and losses isn't what it used to be."
With anti-war protesters getting increased attention, the president has been defending his war policies in speeches in Utah and Idaho, warning that an early withdrawal from Iraq would hurt the United States.
While disagreeing with Sheehan's call to pull troops out of Iraq, Bush said, "I strongly support her right to protest."
A solid majority of the public agrees with Bush's stance on staying in Iraq. Six in 10 in the poll support keeping troops in Iraq until it is stabilized rather than pulling them out now.
Robin Brown, a Republican from Douglasville, Ga., says the U.S. troops will eventually achieve their mission "if people will hang in there with them."
Iraqi political leaders have been struggling to reach agreement on a constitution that would be acceptable to Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
Vivian Snyder, a Republican from Staten Island, N.Y., said she disagreed with the decision to invade Iraq, but doesn't want troops to leave yet. "Otherwise, it's all for nothing."
The poll of 1,001 adults was conducted Aug. 22-24 by Ipsos, an international polling firm, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
more swill from Will and AP for the masses .
Tomorrow in Crawford they will see how terrible wrong they are.
I may feel they have a right to oppose...but I also have the right to call the manner of their opposition and what they are saying the lies and seditious, vomitous, rantings that they are.
What a stupid, non-news story. Of course, the clear implication is that anyone who disagrees with the saintly "anti-war" protestors is against free speech.
And the 10th is the same people that believe Elvis is alive and that they have been upducted and sexually violated by aliens.....
Of course they have a right to protest.
And I have the right to think they're a bunch of candy-ass ninnies.
"a rare example of widespread agreement about a conflict that has divided the nation along partisan lines. "
That agreement isn't about the conflict, it's about our constitutional rights.
Of course everyone has a right to protest a war, this is America, you can protest anything you want to, many people have given their lives to secure that right!! Just because someone agrees she has a right to protest doesn't mean they agree with her! Typical liberal word game and fact twist. These people REALLY are stupid.
Sounds like the same thing to me.
Unbelievable. Disgraceful.
The question has to do with the principles of the First Amendment, but the author spins it into "widespread agreement about a conflict."
I heard Adrianna Huff&Puff call Hillary out for not supporting Cindy and the anti-war effort on Hannity's radio program. She would not answer a single question, just went straight into her liberal rant.
To me, this sort of propaganda is treasonous. Why would any American want to push falsehoods with the aim of demoralizing his own country in war?
Absolutley. We also have the right to tune them out and turn the TV channel over when it appears on the screen.
The SCOTUS erodes our natural right to property, but those of us who believe in a free republic will uphold the right of those with whom we disagree to express themselves--even if they will not reciprocate--and even if we find such expression to be loathsome.
`In a word, as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.' James Madison, Essay on Property, March 29, 1792
In the article it states that 37% of the people polled approve of Bush's handling of the war whcih equals 75% Republicans and 15% Democrats. This means that 75% of Republicans that were polled equal less than 37% polled overall. These aren't fair statistics at all. This is a skewed poll and a slanted article meant to give the impression that Americans "support" the anti-war protesters.
I support the 1st Amendment's guarntee of Free Speech, and while I don't agree with the anti-war protesters at all, they have rights to do what they doing, depsite the fact that they don't appreciate those who fought for those rights.
Ugghg, noone questions their right to protest. The issue is if protesting is right.
I like what Ann Coulter wrote this week - she said there is not increasing division in America, it's that conservatives are speaking up against the liberal party line being pushed constantly by the MSM. That's what the MSM calls division.
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