59% of Americans say the U.S. should stay out of the conflict in Syria, only 17% support airstrikes, and most think intervening in Syria is not their country's responsibility
Yesterday U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said that there is “no doubt” that the Syrian government was responsible for last week’s chemical weapons attacks, while U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the BBC “we are ready to go, like that” with a missile attack staged from U.S. Navy warships currently stationed off the coast of Syria.
Following research showing that the British public oppose “using British missiles” to carry out such an attack in Syria by a ratio of 2:1, YouGov can reveal that Americans are possibly even less enthusiastic about their military becoming involved.
59% of the American public want the U.S. to “stay out” of the two and a half year old conflict in Syria, while only 15% want the U.S. to “help.”
When asked about a series of possible actions that could be taken in Syria, none of them receive majority support, with 48% supporting “humanitarian aid” – which is supported by 77% in Britain – and only 17% supporting airstrikes against Syrian government targets.
American sentiment does not appear to be driven by doubts about the use of chemical weapons by President Assad’s government – 55% believe the Syrian government either “probably has” (32%) or “definitely has” (23%) used chemical weapons.
However, a majority of Americans simply do not think it is their country’s responsibility to intervene around the world. Only 18% of the American public think the United States has “a responsibility to intervene militarily in trouble sports around the globe” while 54% think the United States does not have such a responsibility.
For comparison, on the eve of the Iraq War in 2003, a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll found that nearly six in ten Americans supported the Iraq War if it got approval from the UN National Security Council, and 54% supported it if did not; support dropped to 47% if NSC approval was not sought at all. However a YouGov for the Huffington Post conducted in January found that 52% of Americans thought that the Iraq War was a mistake.
Image: Getty
