'Military Times' Poll Finds Support for President, War, Fading

[sabra]

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001772647

'Military Times' Poll Finds Support for President, War, Fading


NEW YORK While President Bush remains more popular within the military than outside it, support for him, and for the war in Iraq, “has slipped significantly in the last year among members of the military’s professional core,” according to the Military Times, analyzing its annual year-end poll.

...

Approval of the president’s Iraq policy fell 9% from 2004; a bare majority, 54%, now say they view his performance on Iraq favorably. Support for his overall performance fell 11 points, to 60%, among readers of the Military Times newspapers (85% of those polled are on active duty) .

“Though support both for President Bush and for the war in Iraq remains significantly higher than in the public as a whole, the drop is likely to add further fuel to the heated debate over Iraq policy,” the report continued. “In 2003 and 2004, supporters of the war in Iraq pointed to high approval ratings in the Military Times Poll as a signal that military members were behind President Bush’s the president’s policy.”

Of the poll respondents, all active duty, about half had served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Only 13% called themselves Democrats. The poll was taken from about mid-November to mid-December, with 1,215 respondents.

[shraby]

1. I wonder how many answer truthfully because of

fear of retaliation.

[cliss]

2. Now, that's strange.

Only 13% called themselves Democrats.

How can that be? Is there some sort of preference for Repubs to sign up for the Armed forces? I kinda doubt it.

As far as numbers go, there are more Dem's in this country than repugs. Something's wrong here.

[badgervan]

3. Many Dems in the Service - Just Quietly

When I was in the service, the great majority of enlisted were dems, while the officers tended to be repubs. We could talk freely amongst fellow enlisted, but learned the hard way to keep political leanings to ourselves amongst certain folks, especially certain folks with gold on their collars.
Makes sense - just like in real life, the folks who do the actual hard work ( enlisted ) tend to be dems. Not all, as religion, guns, etc. nowadays have a larger effect on one's political leanings than they did years ago. Repubs have been very successful at "framing the issues", as they say.

[rodeodance]

4. just glad it slipping!

[pocket]

9. for starters, most dems don't want to sign up to kill brown people

Which is pretty much the mission of the us military for the past 40 years.

[sludge man]

5. I don't believe the support is that high.

The chain of command has a way of keeping dissent to a minimum.

[newyawker99]

6. Hi sludge man!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Qanisqineq]

7. yeah, I don't know where all this supposed support is

My husband is military and I hear nothing but troops hating Bush. Shhhh! Just don't tell anyone you don't like him. And it isn't just a recent thing, he wasn't as popular as most believe to begin with, but support has really slipped in the past couple years.

[teknomanzer]

8. The key term to look at here is...

"members of the military's professional core." To whom does that refer? Who exactly is included in that group?

[SKKY]

10. And, raking of the Daily Mirror here, how can 54% of our military...

...be so dumb? :wtf: