Voters now support boots on the ground in Iraq if necessary to defeat ISIS, but Americans’ perceptions of U.S. military might and troop morale has tanked under President Obama.
By a 52-42 percent margin, voters okay U.S. troop deployments in Iraq if airstrikes aren’t enough to defeat the terror army, though a whopping 78-percent majority approves of U.S. airstrikes. However, voters by a 57 – 24 percent margin believe defeating ISIS cannot be defeated with airstrikes alone, which represents an increase of 6 points since mid-September. Further, a 55-percent majority says President Obama hasn’t been aggressive enough in the effort to defeat ISIS, and don’t believe he has a clear strategy for winning.
Voters side with House Speaker John Boehner, among other critics, who say the president when he gave away the battle plan and folded immediately on ground troops. “I would never tell the enemy what I was willing to do or unwilling to do,” the speaker said. A majority — 54 percent — called it “crazy” for Obama to announce U.S. strategy to the enemy, 34 percent say it was “smart” to let Americans know the plan. Not surprisingly, considering they are the only voting bloc with experience, 60 percent of veterans say it was “crazy.”
Sadly, 32 percent of voters think the U.S. military has become less effective under Obama, as opposed to 17 percent who say it has become more effective. A significant 47 percent say there’s no difference. However, among veterans and those currently serving in the military, the people who would actually know, a larger 43 percent say less effective, while just 21 percent say more effective. Roughly a third — 32 percent — say it’s about the same now as before.
Despite that sentiment, voters still show support for ground operations, which suggests they simply don’t feel safe under Obama’s policy. Nearly 8 in 10 American voters — 79 percent — are concerned about ISIS hitting the homeland, even more than those worried about the Ebola virus (31 percent). It is worth noting that the poll was taken as the news of the first-ever Ebola virus started to make headlines.
Overall, 74 percent of voters say Obama has been week on radical Islam, ten times the 7 percent who say he’s been too tough. Even 60 percent of Democrats say Obama has not been tough enough on radical Islam, while 70 percent of independents and a striking 91 percent among Republicans agree. Voters continue to disapprove of the job Obama’s doing as president — 39 – 53 percent among likely voters — though those ratings are lower on foreign policy (35 – 55 percent disapprove), terrorism (41 – 53 percent disapprove), Iraq (38 – 53 percent disapprove) and Syria (34 – 54 percent disapprove).
These putrid numbers are actually representative of a bump in support since Obama gave the order to launch “targeted” strikes against ISIS positions in Iraq and Syria, though they are likely to tick down if reports keep demonstrating the strategy is not working.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,049 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from September 28-30, 2014. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
