(AP-Ipsos) Poll: Many back right to protest Iraq war

AP ^ | 8/26/05 | Will Lester - AP

[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.

[Lorianne]

Free speech .... bring it on!

[DrDeb]

IT'S THE SAMPLE STUPID!

We must always remember that a poll's results are only as valid as the sample used to generate said results!

As is typical for ALL current pollsters, this AP/Ipsos Reid poll GROSSLY oversamples Democrats (by 13 points):

50% Democrat
37% Republican

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Just imagine what the President's approval ratings (job or Iraq) would be if polling organizations would actually survey a REPRESENTATIVE sample of 'adults' or, better yet, 'likely voters'?!

[SerpentDove]

Duh. Who DOESN'T agree that we have the right to protest?

But that doesn't mean we agree with the lunatic, Cindy Sheehan.

[nailspitter]

Let me get this straight.

A poll with 13% too many Democrats still finds that six in 10 want us to "stay the course in Iraq."

Does Cindy Shiite know this?

[DrDeb]

"Let me get this straight.

A poll with 13% too many Democrats still finds that six in 10 want us to "stay the course in Iraq."

Does Cindy Shiite know this?"



My thought exactly!!

[ohioWfan]

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

I'm surprised the AP included this in their stupid article because it negates their propaganda.

Six in ten agree with the President's stance on staying the course (even in their slanted poll), and he agrees with the minority's right to protest.

No story.

May God bless and protect our troops as they fight against evil for our freedom and safety!

[MIT-Elephant]

"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."

Can anyone answer me this...I have a sneaking suspicion that the country was not in 'massive unrest' around the time Vietnam was ramped up. The media and the aged hippies have a great incentive to promote the idea that half the country was sitting on lawns tearing up draft cards and playing Peter Paul and Mary LPs.

I would wager that it was mostly the activites of a few candy-ass punks at elite colleges like Oregon, Stanford, and the Ivies, and the cushed intellectuals like Noam Chomsky.

(Don't get me wrong, though - I'm sure plenty of dope was smoked up on Haight-Ashbury.)

[MIT-Elephant]

"Duh. Who DOESN'T agree that we have the right to protest?

But that doesn't mean we agree with the lunatic, Cindy Sheehan."

But the moral authority of the mothers of dead soldiers is absolute! (Maureen Dowd) At least she didn't say the intellectual authority to spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories was absolute.

[IamConservative]

upducted and sexually violated Sounds like the same thing to me.

May the scribe please enter "upducted" in the Freeper lexicon hall of fame.

[MNJohnnie]

AP-Ipsos poll

Ah yes, the same people who told us it was going to be "President Kerry" all thur 2004. Wonder if this question would ever be asked by a pollster. "If the actions of the American anti-War movement in the USA was putting Americans troops lives at risk, would you still support their right to protest?"

[saleman]

"Six in 10 in the poll support keeping troops in Iraq until it is stabilized rather than pulling them out now. "


So 40% support getting out before Iraq is stabilized. Like Cindy Sheehan. I wonder if these idiots have thought about what would happen if we left? Or do they even care? Would someone please ask them this?

[jmaroneps37]

Always remember: Ipsos = lying rat scummer full of shiite.
"1000 adults" my butt.

[YOUGOTIT]

"Can anyone answer me this...I have a sneaking suspicion that the country was not in 'massive unrest' around the time Vietnam was ramped up"

The Nazi protesters were massive. Most college campuses were in the hands of the left and the left was bombing ROTC buildings and setting them on fire. Massive demonstrations were held at the airports where we returned from Vietnam. We were spit on and called all kinds of names. On the street, in some cities, it was not safe to be in uniform. And the police protected the demonstrators from any spitting on them. However, it was overblown by the media as the total country did not support the demonstrators. And the media lied about the actions in Vietnam as they are telling lies about Iraq. The Vietnam era Nazi demonstrators were more vocal that the few Nazi who protest the war on Terror but most of them are the same ones who were giving head in the streets in the 1960's and 1970's. It was near impossible for a Vietnam vet to get a job and a law had to be passed that said Vietnam vets could not be discriminated against in the workplace. It was a sad time. I am in in great joy when I hear that one of them suffers in some way.

[Dems_R_Losers]

Even in my sleepy Bible Belt town of Lexington, Kentucky, they burned down the ROTC building at the university and the Governor had to call out the National Guard. My brother was in college then and the antiwar movement pretty much dominated all the campuses. The antiwar protestors rioted and almost ended the DNC convention in 1968. There were fistfights in the streets of New York between war protestors and construction workers. The radio was full of antiwar protest songs. There were marches of close to a million people in Washington and New York. Antiwar protestors showed up in large numbers at airports where troops came home and threw bags of human waste at them. And of course, the four students at Kent State were shot and killed by National Guardsmen breaking up a protest.

But the war was not lost at home until Walter Cronkite said it was. Adults who did got pay much attention to the college protestors paid a lot of attention to Cronkite.

[YOUGOTIT]

"But the war was not lost at home until Walter Cronkite said it was."

The war was not lost. A negotiated peace was made but one year later (after the US Military was gone) the Nazi Congress cut off all funding for the South Vietnamese and the Communist in the North started their invasion which ended in the MSM films that show only the embassy being evacuated. There was never any news about the concentration camps (re training camps) that the South Vietnamese were put in or the millions who risked their lives (many died) in small boats to get away from the Communist North.

One other thing the so called Viet Cong were non existent as most were killed (they numbers were in the thousands)during the Tet Offensive although the MSM reported that we lost. Another of a long list of lies that the MSM is still telling. May they get a #%# and suffer greatly.

[balch3]

Lying MSM poll. It's the same one that has Bush at 40%, so it's wildly inaccurate. Anyway, having an opinion is one thing. But actively opposing the President in time of war is sedition. If you don't like the way things are going, keep your mouth shut. The grownups are in charge now.

[MIT-Elephant]

"But the war was not lost at home until Walter Cronkite said it was. Adults who did got pay much attention to the college protestors paid a lot of attention to Cronkite."

That's what I was getting at. I doubted that middle-class America thought much of the antiwar campus left (which to be honest is a slim minority of the US population.) When Uncle Walt got into the game that was when the tide turned.

I guess no one briefed Crunkite on how much of a disaster the Tet offensive was - for the Viet Cong. Only the media could turn victory into defeat.

[Mr. Silverback]

Yay, the AP proves Americans are OK with the First Amendment! Will tomoorow's story be about ohow we're overwhelmingly in favor of rape staying illegal? Yeesh, these media dips think we're dumb!