Poll shows Americans gun-shy over Syria intervention
White House discussing possible response to alleged use of chemical weapons by Assad government, but most Americans still unwilling to step in
Gavriel Fiske is a reporter at The Times of Israel
Americans remain deeply skeptical about intervention in Syria’s civil war, even as the White House is considering wider support to opposition forces in the wake of a devastating alleged chemical attack, a new poll revealed Saturday.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll found that some 60 percent of Americans opposed direct US intervention in Syria’s ongoing civil war, and only 9% thought American should act directly.
A plurality of 46% of Americans would oppose US intervention even if it is proved that the government of Bashar Assad has used chemical weapons against its own population, the poll found, and a similar 47% said that the US should not supply arms to the rebels.
Hundreds of people were reported killed on Wednesday, after several warheads, reportedly armed with chemical weapons, slammed into neighborhoods east of Damascus. Aid group Doctors Without Borders put the death toll at 355, while some opposition groups say up to 1,300 were killed.
Damascus denied firing chemical weapons, but the pictures of dead bodies, including may children, ignited a firestorm of opposition against Assad particularly in the West.
On Saturday night, US President Barack Obama convened his national security team and top officials to discuss an American response.
The poll of Americans found that 25% supported direct intervention if the use of chemical weapons is proven, and 27% supported Obama’s decision to supply arms to the rebel forces.
The poll, a survey of 1,448 people conducted over August 19-23, had a margin of error of 2.9%.
While the raw data was not made available as of Sunday morning, the results as reported by Reuters point to a reluctance on the part of US citizens to become involved in another Middle Eastern war, after the decade-long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last week’s alleged chemical weapon use by the Assad regime seems to have pushed American opinion both toward and opposing intervention. A similar poll conducted in early July found that 42% opposed intervention if chemical weapons use was proven, as opposed to 46% opposition last week, and 30% said the US should intervene, as opposed to 25% in the current poll.
The White House said Saturday that US intelligence officials were still trying to determine whether Assad unleashed a deadly chemical weapons attack against his people last week. Officials said once the facts are clear, Obama would make a decision about how to proceed.
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel offered no hints Sunday about a likely US response to Syria’s purported use of chemical weapons, telling reporters traveling with him in Malaysia that the Obama administration was still assessing intelligence information about the deadly attack.
“When we have more information, that answer will become clear,” he said when a reporter asked whether it was a matter of when, not if, the US will take military action against Syria.
Asked about US military options on Syria, Hagel spoke in broad terms about the factors Obama was weighing.
“There are risks and consequences for any option that would be used or not used — for action or inaction,” he told reporters. “You have to come to the central point of what would be the objective if you are to pursue an action or not pursue an action. So all those assessments are being made.”
He said the administration was weighing many factors. These include an intelligence assessment of what some say appears to have been a chemical attack on civilians, as well as what he called legal issues and the matter of international support for any military response.
US intervention would likely involve a multi-national force. According to a Sunday Times report, British and US defense officials are “compiling a list of targets, among a range of options” for a possible one- or two-day operation with “stand-off weapons” — aircraft and cruise missiles. A source told the paper that the plans would involve no “boots on the ground.”
Top international military officials, including head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, are scheduled to arrive in Jordan this week to discuss recent developments in Syria, the Hashemite Kingdom’s semi-official news agency, Petra, reported on Saturday. Military leaders from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, France, Britain, Canada, Germany and Italy are also set to attend.
US defense officials told The Associated Press Saturday that the US Navy had sent a fourth warship armed with ballistic missiles into the eastern Mediterranean Sea, but without immediate orders for any missile launch into Syria. Hagel declined to discuss specifics, but said that Obama had asked the Pentagon to prepare military options for Syria.
Last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry called his counterpart in Syria, Walid al-Moualem, to ask that UN chemical weapon inspectors, currently in Syria, be allowed to investigate the site of last week’s alleged attack near Damascus, Reuters reported Sunday.
Kerry told the Syrians that if “the Syrian regime has nothing to hide, it should have allowed immediate and unimpeded access to the site rather than continuing to attack the affected area to block access and destroy evidence,” the State Department said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
