US intervention: we're wigged out, but not hopeless

[bemildred]

For the first time in CNN/ORC polling [graded "A-" by Silver], a majority of Americans (53%) say the U.S. should send ground troops to Iraq or Syria to fight ISIS. At the same time, 6-in-10 disapprove of the President's handling of terrorism and 68% say America's military response to the terrorist group thus far has not been aggressive enough.

Have these 53 percent suffered a stroke? Can they not recall the, ahem, recent unpleasantness? Have they no memory of, nor lessons learned from, Bush-Cheney interventionism? Is their capacity for comprehension so damaged, they understand not that ISIS begs for the latter?

To ask these questions transcends cheap sarcasm. I suspect only a massive, cerebrovascular insult to the national brain could propel such drooling, semiconscious polling results — which are also fiercely tribal, and therein lies some grace.

Subsequent to being altogether appalled by that "53 percent," one looks at the poll's internals. Asked CNN/ORC: "Do you favor or oppose the United States sending ground troops into combat operations against ISIS forces in Iraq or Syria?" Thirty-nine percent of Democrats said they favor; among Independents, it was 49 percent; and among Republicans, 75. Similar stats are revealed in the nation's ideological divisions: among liberals, 35 percent favor; among moderates, 46 percent; and conservatives reliably come in at 69 percent.

And there's this. A staggering 81 percent of Tea Party "supporters" (tea partiers, then?) favor the slaughter of American ground troops in the bewitching, sand-swept vacationlands of Iraq and Syria. We may expect even more bellicose blatherings from primary-vote-hungry Republican presidential candidates.

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[99th_Monkey]

1. The wording of the question is designed to get the desired results

Obama has already said he's sending 50 special forces into the conflict in Syria. Anyone who
supports Obama on this, would vote "Yes" to "sending troops" ... PLUS everyone of a more hawkish
ilk would ALSO vote "Yes" as well; so the wording is so broad as to be meaningless.

If the question had asked about sending MORE than the 50 Obama pledged, that would help, but
it would be even more helpful to have an actual number of troops: 1000? 5000? 100,000? <- these
are all lumped together, which is ridiculous and very misleading.

[KoKo]

2. ...!