Originally posted by Thap on 21-08-2003 **"Do you feel safer at home or travelling abroad since the war against terror began?
Do you feel that the occupation of far off lands is helping you sleep better or merely exacerbating the polarisation of global cultures leading to the increased chance of random acts of violence?
Just interested in your opinions."**
I got quite a unified response from gupshups non-Mulsim Americans stating that yes indeed the war was worth it.
‘Real’ Americans tend to disagree:
A growing number of Americans, seven in 10, doesn’t think the war in Iraq has reduced the threat of terrorism
9 out 10 have such bad sentence construction that they don't get their point across and resort to dropping verbal bombs.
Madhanee just highlighting the fact that we have skewed representation from an extreme minority in gupshup and I'm not talking about small men with big moustaches.
I definitely feel a lot safer now that we have more stringent immigration laws and are fighting the scum over there…hope that answers the question thappie!
When you try to compare two polls from different time frames, don't you need to have the same question asked before you can try to draw conclusions as you have?
"Do you feel safer since the war on terror started" is an entirely different question than "Has the war in Iraq reduced the threat of terrorism?"
Given the differences between the questions, you can draw no conclusions about anything by comparing the poll results. Sorry.
Has the 'war on the west' made the oppressed or the ummah or whoever they are fighting for feel safer? Do they feel safer at home or travelling abroad since the war against the west began?
Do they feel that the murder of innocent civilians in far off lands is helping them sleep better or merely exacerbating the polarization of global cultures leading to the increased chance of the US attacking another terrorist sponsoring country?
You can open up a seperate thread on this percieved war? And maybe highlight which 'nations' and 'governments' are involved or are you actually suggesting a war is being fought by phantoms?
Back to this thread, so now that Iraq and Afghanistan are in a 'new and improved' state of turmoil and anguish do you feel any safer?
A growing number of Americans, seven in 10, doesn't think the war in Iraq has reduced the threat of terrorism.
No kidding.
Many people said the Iraq war (and the Afghan war before it) would increase terrorism, and make the world a more dangerous place, yet these fears were dismissed. The extremist US regime, supported by American zealots and zioinists has directed the killing of more people in Iraq and Afghanistan than those terrorists that they are always telling us about - four or five times more in fact. So not only has the extremist US regime done more to increase terrorism across the world, but it has become the biggest terrorists of the lot.
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*Originally posted by Seminole: *
Has the 'war on the west' made the oppressed or the ummah or whoever they are fighting for feel safer? Do they feel safer at home or travelling abroad since the war against the west began?
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that's absurd.. the US is a government, a nation and it's "War on Terror" is a country's actions.. who did you address for a War on the West?? does Ummah have a phone number?
They also have dimishing support at home Malik, but not form the 'good old boys' here in gupshup, it would appear that they have more to lose than the president.
"Has the war in Iraq reduced the threat of terrorism?"
First off, the "war on terrorism" is not synonomous with the "war in Iraq" is it? The war in Iraq is a subset of the bigger war against terrorism. It's not just a "semantic" difference.
A person could consistently and easily not think the war in Iraq has reduced the threat of terrorism and, at the same time, believe the entire war against terror fought from 9/12/01 to the present has made us safer from terrorist attack in the US.
Since the public justification for the war in Iraq was WMD, it is not surprising at all that Americans, in the majority, would not currently view the Iraq war as reducing the threat of terrorism in light of the failure to discover WMD. Further, the almost weekly suicide/car bombings in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Israel, etc. certainly demonstrate for all to see that the threat of terrorism is still alive.
The relevant question is whether Americans believe they are safer today than they were on 9/11/01 because of America's war on terrorism. That was your question in August. Ask Americans that same question today and I think you'll get a large majority of Americans still answering it with a yes. The reason for the "yes" answer may or may not have anything to do with the war in Iraq. Another significant terror attack WITHIN the US would probably change that answer.
The war in Iraq has NOT reduced the threat of terror in the short run. It's arguable if it has an effect in the long term if Uncle Saddam continued his murderous reign. The war in Afghanistan has reduced the threat of terror in the short run. It remains to be seen if it will have a lasting effect or if warlords and extremists will once again have the country in chaos and allow those who export terror to set up camp once again.
But all of Bush's extraneous activities have NOT in my opinion done anything to lessen the threat. His arrogant and selfish approach has done nothing to bridge the cultural and political divide between opposing sides.
You're actually the one missing the point Thappie. The fact that seven in 10 americans doesn't think the war in Iraq has reduced the threat of terrorism only confirms that these folks think that saddam and co. didn't and/or doesn't represent a real threat. 5 in 10 americans thought this way before the war and the lack of wmd evidence thus far has apparently swayed another two.
btw a few spelling tips for you-
"i before e except after c" (as in "perceived" my logic and spelling challenged friend)
I’m sure that you, being the wordman that you are, would have been quite capable in your original thread of asking Americans whether or not they viewed the world as “a safer place now that Iraq is under seige” IF that been the question you wanted to ask. ** But you didn’t. ** You asked about the “war on terror” which you know quite well encompasses much more: the War in Afghanistan, the seizure of money, the Patriot Act, the Homeland Security Department, Guantanamo Bay, etc. etc. etc. Now, you try to compare results of a poll that asks only about Iraq with results from your own poll.
The results of the poll you now post may be newsworthy and significant. BUT, it is not logically or rationally connected to replies in your previous thread.
I would argue that the world, as of this particular snapshot in time, is a more dangerous place because of the Iraq war. (Had we found WMD, I would not feel this way). However, I think we in the USA are safer and a terrorist attack inside our borders is less likely rather than more likely.
I also think the world will, as of some other particular snapshot in time, become a safer place because of the war in Iraq. The terrorist attacks inside Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Bali, Kenya, etc. do not persuade me that they are getting stronger and mightier. That their targets are increasingly becoming soft targets that don’t even differentiate between Muslim and non-Muslim persuades me that they are nearer the end of their reign than they are in the beginning of it.
Myvoice it really doesn’t become you to put up such a struggle over a simple an issue as this one.
Iraq was the central piece of the war against terror, public opinion was cultured to such an extent in the US that the majority believed Saddam himself flew one of the planes. (see link provided to Stu for editing below)
Seminole, thanks for addressing the pertinent points.
You’ll see a picture being painted here gentlemen a none too pretty one. With the majority of Americans being sold on Saddam and terror and 9/11 all wrapped up in a holiday season bundle.
The majority of ‘real’ Americans didn’t buy it.
Most of you do and represent an extremist fringe, which is fine by me btw.
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*Originally posted by Thap: *
They also have dimishing support at home Malik, but not form the 'good old boys' here in gupshup, it would appear that they have more to lose than the president.
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Thap, what we have is a small bunch of extremists on one side, who have hijacked the US government, ostensibly waging a war against another bunch of extremists on the other side. So we are told. But like Hitler and Stalin both sets of extremists seem to have common goals for differing reasons, but one's which 85% of people do not share or support.
