Polls Show Hawkishness on Iraq, But Doubt About Obama’s Prowess

President Obama just gave a speech
condemning the beheading of an American freelance journalist by
terrorist group the Islamic State (also known as ISIL or ISIS),
ordered
more airstrikes, and military officials are hinting that more
troops could be deployed to Iraq soon. How do Americans feel about
another chapter in the Iraq War? There are hints of hawkishness,
but concern – especially among millennials – that the Obama
Administration is not actually capable of executing a quick,
effective campaign against ISIL.

A USA Today-Pew poll
released on Monday found that “44 percent of Americans believe
the U.S. bears a responsibility to ‘do something’ about the
violence,” while 41 percent do not. Last month, only 39 percent
believed the U.S. ought to do something and 55 percent believed it
didn’t. Interestingly, the survey also found that “those under 30
are less likely to approve of airstrikes than older Americans are,
and they are much more likely to express concern about the risks of
an expanding U.S. engagement in Iraq. By more than 3-1,
18-to-29-year-olds worry more that the U.S. will get too
involved.”

“The United States of America will continue to do what we must
do to protect our people,” asserts Obama, but what exactly is it
that we must do?

Pew
suggests that 54 percent of the public supports airstrikes.
Republicans are collectively more gung-ho than average with 70
percent support. The majority of Democrats (54 percent) are on
board with airstrikes, but an even larger portion (62 percent)
 of the party is skeptical that such a strategy will “confront
this awful terrorism and replace it with a sense of hope and
civility” as Obama stated earlier today.

And, again, young people seem to be the most cautious:

Nearly seven-in-ten of those under 30 (68 percent) say their
greater concern about U.S. military action in Iraq is that the U.S.
will get too involved in the situation; just 21 percent are more
concerned that the U.S. will not go far enough stopping the Islamic
militants. Among those 65 and older, about as many are more
concerned that the U.S. will get too involved (41 percent) as worry
it will not do enough to stop the militants (39 percent).

This wariness may shed light on broader findings from a recent
Reason-Rupe poll, which
reported “37 percent of Americans approve of the job President
Obama is doing on foreign policy, while 53 percent disapprove.”

And, despite expressing support for dropping bombs, Rasmussen
research last week
found “68 percent of all voters believe the militants are
likely to succeed in taking control of Iraq anyway,” and as of last
month, belief in the notion that America is winning the “War on
Terror” has fallen to a
10-year low, according to another Rasmussen survey. 

It’s hard to blame Americans for their skepticism. As
Foreign Policy‘s Gordon Lubold points out, the White House
is struggling not only to fight the Islamic State, but even to
simply define
its goals and objectives in Iraq. And, ISIL’s forces have grown
by an estimated
6,000 in the last month.