World Public Opinion Sharply Opposed To Syria Strikes
As the Obama administration seeks allies for its as-yet lonely campaign to inflict punitive missile strikes on Syria, those plans are confronting substantial distrust and resistance from citizens around the globe.
A joint report drawn from The Huffington Post's seven international editions finds striking public opposition to military intervention in Syria, with polls showing weak support for a strike in much of Europe as well as in the United States and Canada.
In the United States, only 25 percent of those surveyed in late August in a HuffPost/YouGov poll expressed support for a military strike in reaction to the lethal chemical weapons attack blamed widely on the regime of Syrian president Bashar Assad.
A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center and wrapped up Sept. 1 -– almost two weeks after the chemical weapons attack -– found only 29 percent in favor of a strike.
In France, where President Francois Hollande has pledged to join the United States in taking on Syria, public support for military intervention has been running at 45 percent, according to a recent CSA survey for Atlantico. Another poll conducted by Ifop for the newspaper Le Figaro found 55 percent in favor of intervention, yet only 41 percent approved of France joining in a military response.
In Britain, where polls have long shown consistent opposition to any form of intervention in Syria, neither allegations of chemical weapons use by the Assad regime nor the push for action from leaders in London and Washington has altered the opinion of a war-weary public.
A ComRes poll for the Independent newspaper published on Monday found that only 29 percent of people believe Britain should join the United States in launching air strikes against Syria to deter Assad from using chemical weapons, while 57 percent are outright opposed. Four out of five people assert that any military action against Syria requires the approval of the United Nations.
ComRes chairman Andrew Hawkins told The Huffington Post UK that he doesn’t believe a forthcoming report from the United Nations weapons inspectors will “move the dials, and neither would further chemical crimes by Assad -– at least on the scale seen so far.”
In Germany, public opinion has been running 58 percent against striking Syria, according to public television. And in Italy a recent poll by the IPR Institute found that 52 percent of the public opposed an attack on Syria even absent Italian involvement. About 57 percent of Italians opposed allowing Italian military bases to be used in assisting foreign strikes engaged in strikes.
No polls have been conducted to gauge Canadian opinion on military intervention, but fatigue from involvement in Afghanistan and a few anti-Syrian-intervention protests suggest Canadians are not eager to jump in. Canada has signaled that it will not offer military support for a potential U.S.-led strike on Syria, while lending voice to calls for action.
Signs of public opposition from around the globe resonate as a rebuke to the Obama administration as it presses to unleash weapons on Syria in response to a chemical weapons attack there blamed for the deaths of some 1,400 people.
Public resistance reflects a marked predilection against military intervention following disastrous wars involving foreign forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. This sentiment appears to run especially deep in France, which played a leading role in interventions in Libya and Mali over the past two years.
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Governments in Washington, London, France and Ottawa have portrayed the Assad regime's alleged use of chemical weapons as a threat to humanity everywhere -– the sort of cruelty and incivility that cannot be allowed with impunity. Yet despite efforts by President Barack Obama to stoke fears of chemical-weapon attacks against Americans and their allies, few people outside Syria fear for their own safety.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/05/world-public-opinion-syria_n_3876187.html
It appears the world does not agree with you and is not on your side.