U.S. Has Resumed Bombing Iran. Most Americans Don’t See An End In Sight To Conflict
ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images
A new survey has found that four in five Americans expect the U.S. war with Iran to continue for an extended time despite repeated attempts at ceasefires and peace deals.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was completed over this past weekend and found that 79 percent of Americans believe the U.S. military will be involved in activity for “an extended period of time.” The wire service noted that the figure was up from 65 percent in May.
About 18 percent thought things might end in a “matter of weeks.”
The poll found that only 37 percent supported the U.S. resuming strikes against Iran in response to attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is a key shipping lane with 20 percent of the world’s oil being exported through it. Disruptions to the shipping lane have repeatedly caused oil prices to spike.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,019 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of about four percentage points.
The poll results come as President Trump seeks to resume a naval blockade of Iranian ports to regain control of the Strait.
Reuters/Ipsos poll aligns with other reports regarding public opinion about the conflict that began in February. The Silver Bulletin website tracks numerous polls on a variety of issues creating a composite.
According to the website, as of July 6, the Iran war remained largely unpopular, with only 36 percent of the public supporting it and 57 percent opposing it.
The Iran war has never been popular. When it began at the end of February, polls had only 30 percent supporting the war and 47 percent opposing it. The highwater mark for support was on March 15, when the composite reached 40.5 percent. Since then, support has generally trended down and hasn’t been above 40 percent since March, according to Silver Bulletin.
Meanwhile, opposition has been consistently over 50 percent since March. The latest poll in the Silver Bulletin composite was by YouGov and was conducted from July 10 to July 13. That poll found support cratering to 27 percent and opposition at 57 percent.
