News What's Your Opinion? - Forum Poll

[suyver]

Don't worry, I am not planning on starting another discussion about this topic! I was just curious to see what the opinions on this forum are. I really tried to write all the answers as objectively and clearly as possible and I did not intend to insult or provoke anybody. The order in which I have placed the answers may or may not reflect my opinions. I just hope that people will vote in the poll...

(How's that for a disclaimer! )

 

[schwarzchildradius]

Excellent poll, wish I had thought of it. The first night of bombing in March I said to my wife "This is totally insane," and I still feel that way. Bush Sr. made a strategic (and costly) withdrawal from Iraq because he wanted to avoid exactly this situation. Clinton avoided conflict with Iraq because he didn't want to stir up a 'hornet's nest.' The best outcome this situation can possibly have is an Islamic fundamentalist state like Iran. In 2002, Bush was voted "worst president in history" by physicsforums.com; I tihnk those budding physicists were right.

 

[FZ+]

Interesting that the vote is so close, at least at the time of this post.

Though maybe we should clear up what you mean by "support the war". Suppose I thought that the US was wrong to go into Iraq, but now that it has happened, it is even more wrong to abandon Iraq - would that be supporting the war?

 

[suyver]

I meant for 'support' to mean that you agree with the troops being there at that/this time. You could agree because you think it's the right thing, or because you think it's the least-bad thing. Or maybe for a totally different reason. The reason is irrelevant for this question.

So, in your example FZ+, I'd say that you fall in the group of people who didn't support the war before the invasion, but now do.

Actually, what surprises me even more is that there are very few people that changed their mind. Wheneven I hear about polls (e.g. on CNN) then I get told that the number of supporters for the war changed significantly compared to half a year ago. This does not show from the results in this poll.


By the way: I really appreciate that this is already the fourth post in this thread and still nobody is shouting their opinion and why 'such-and-such' group of people is clearly wrong!

 

[Jonathan]

I think people are voting for the first or the second to last mostly because the people here are smart enough to look for the facts to form their opinions, and because facts really don't change, their opinions will be very consistent. The opinion of average Joe American can be easily swayed by a (possibly unfounded) blip they hear on TV or something, as long as they have reason to believe the blip is true, and they often don't have the time or don't take the time to look into it themselves. It is very easy to pick someone/some group to trust and let them think for you.