Google| Subject | Re: Clobberin' Time... |
| From | James W. King |
| Date | 09/16/2001 16:44 (09/16/2001 16:44) |
| Message-ID | <20010916104451.07416.00000341@mb-fl.aol.com> |
| Client | |
| Newsgroups | rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc |
| Follows | Rimrunner |
| Followups | Daniel Olin Miller (1h & 23m) James Trory (11h & 25m) > James W. King |
Cryofax: "So basically you're saying any other country should be allowed to sponsor activity that leads to civilian casualities, but we should never retaliate against them because we might hurt their 'innocent' civilians? At least we'd have the decency to let them evacuate a city before we annihilate it."
Rakelle (<A HREF="mailto:celaeno@shavenwookie.nospam.com ">celaeno@shavenwookie.nospam.com</A>): "Hiroshima. Nagasaki. And you don't know that a government has knowingly sponsored this."
Drew Stile: "Please don't compare Hiroshima to this. That was war, this was not."
Paul "Duggy" Duggan (jc122739@jcu.edu.au): "Really? Americans keep calling this war."
Rimrunner (<A HREF="mailto:rimrun@NOSPAMdrizzle.com ">rimrun@NOSPAMdrizzle.com</A>): "Come ON, Dug. Do you really think everybody in this country has the same opinion?"
But Rim, I do think it's more than fair to say now, especially as the casualty and body count grows ever higher -- surpassing that of Pearl Harbor even -- that most Americans now *do* consider the WTC & Pentagon attacks to indeed have been acts of war.
RimrunnerNewsweek's "Attack on America Poll" Reveals New Findings:
Press Release by Newsweek Magazine for Saturday, September 15, 2001:
-- 71% of Americans Favor Military Attacks Against Terrorist Bases, Host Countries Even with Civilian Casualties
-- Majority Says More Terrorist Attacks Likely
-- 89% Back Bush's Handling of Crisis But Majority Would Shift Money from Missile Shield
-- Majority Says Surveillance of Arabs, Arab-Americans Would Be Mistake
-- Little Support for Monitoring Calls, E-Mail, Widespread ID Checks or Downing Hijacked Jets
NEW YORK, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Fully 71% of Americans favor a military response to Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. even if there is a high likelihood of civilian casualties from strikes against terrorist bases and the countries that allow or support them, according to the latest Newsweek Poll. And a 54% majority favors attacking people suspected of terrorism against the U.S., like Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, even if it is not clear that they are responsible for what happened last week. Still, an even greater majority (82%) of people polled think it is very likely (43%) or somewhat likely (39%) that more terrorist attacks will be carried out against major U.S. cities, buildings or national landmarks in the near future.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010916/HSSU001 )
Despite the attacks, however, an overwhelming majority of Americans stand firmly behind the president. Eighty-nine percent of Americans approve of the way President George W. Bush has handled the situation since Tuesday's terrorist attacks and overall, 82 percent approve of the way he is handling his job. That number is slightly higher than his father, George Bush Sr. received when he led the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait (75%), and virtually the same as for President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the bombing of Pearl Harbor (84%). And 83 percent of people polled think President Bush has come across as a strong leader though an even greater number of Americans (89%) think New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has done so.
But the majority of Americans (71%) also feels that in view of the terrorist attacks, it's more important for U.S. spending priorities to focus on improving airport and building security and for better intelligence operations and technology to identify terrorist plots, rather than develop an anti-missile shield (18%).
Following the terrorist attacks, the majority of those polled say they are either very worried or somewhat worried that the financial and psychological effects will hurt the U.S. economy (24% very worried, 39% somewhat worried), the world economy (20% very worried; 43% somewhat worried), and stock prices and the value of people's investment portfolios (21% very worried, 40% somewhat worried).
Only 12% of Americans say they feel a lot less safe now than they did before; 24% say somewhat less safe. But 53% say they are less likely to take an overseas airline trip; 46% say they are less likely to take a domestic flight; 44% say they are less likely to travel to New York City and 42% less likely to travel to Washington, D.C. However, 75% say they are not avoiding certain buildings or landmarks because of the terrorist attacks and 81% say are not making other changes in their daily lives.
While the majority of Americans (57%) say a lot of the blame for the attacks is due to inadequate security at airports, and less on the failure of FBI and CIA intelligence to identify and stop plots from being carried out (30%), they are only willing to go so far to have new security measures implemented.
Only 15% favor making it easier for intelligence and law enforcement agents to monitor people's private telephone conversations and e-mails (51% say it goes too far, 32% would accept it); just 16% favor shooting down a passenger airliner that appears to have been hijacked for terrorist purposes (29% say it goes too far, and 48% would accept it); 22% favor not allowing carry-on luggage of any kind on domestic airline flights including purses (42% say it goes too far, 34% would accept it); 23 percent favor random ID checks on streets and highways (44% say it goes too far, 32% would accept it); 30% favor trying to infiltrate U.S. agents into terrorist groups even if they have to commit crimes or terrorist acts to keep their identities secret (22% say it goes too far, 44% would accept it).
However 68% favor putting armed plain-clothes sky marshals on domestic airline flights (27% would accept it, only 4% say it goes too far); 71% favor more restrictions on air travel including changes in check-in procedures (23% would accept it, and 5% say it goes too far) and 49% would accept increasing the price of airline tickets to pay for more security personnel and technology (32% favor, 17% say it goes too far).
And strong majorities believe increased security is the most effective way to prevent terrorist attacks in the future: 76% say more security at airports to prevent weapons from being brought aboard planes would be very effective; 75% say the same about more security to prevent hijackings while planes are in the air, such as putting armed security personnel on board and locking cockpits; 69% say it would be very effective to have more intelligence agents in the field to monitor terrorist activities and infiltrate terrorist groups.
Overwhelming majorities also say it is very or somewhat effective to reduce the amount of encryption used for telephone and e-mail communication to make it easier for intelligence agents to monitor conversations (35% very, 37% somewhat) and to use military strikes against terrorist targets, even if there might be civilian casualties (49% very, 33% somewhat). And 73% say it is very (44%) or somewhat (29%) effective to kill suspected terrorist leaders, as Israel does.
However, 62% of people polled say that it would be a mistake for the United States to put Arabs and Arab-Americans in this country under surveillance, or that it would be a mistake to target a nationality group, as was done with Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor, in response to the terrorist attacks. On balance, Americans by 50 to 32% oppose the U.S. reducing ties with Israel in order to lesson the act of terrorism against the U.S.
A majority of Americans are either very confident (32%) or somewhat confident (42%) that national and local law enforcement agencies in the U.S. are capable of breaking up terrorist plots here by radical groups. But Americans have a more favorable opinion of the military (58% very favorable; 36% mostly favorable) than they do of the FBI (only 37% very favorable; 48% mostly favorable) and the CIA (just 28% very favorable; 44% mostly favorable).
For this Newsweek Poll, Princeton Survey Research Associates interviewed by telephone 1,001 adults aged 18 and over, on September 13-14, 2001. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. The Newsweek Poll is part of the September 24 issue (on newsstands Monday, September 17).
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-- James King
09/11/2001-
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