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Polls Say Americans Favor War, Even if Innocents Killed
WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. public, solidly behind President George W. Bush, overwhelmingly favors a military assault on Afghanistan and supports such action even if it would lead to the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians, two polls revealed.
A poll conducted by Newsweek showed that 71% of Americans support a military strike on bases in Afghanistan, while a similar poll by the
New York Times and CBS television showed that 85% of respondents favor military action against those responsible, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Sunday.
An even greater majority - 82%, according to the Newsweek survey - say additional terrorist attacks on U.S. targets are either very likely, or somewhat likely, in the near future.
In the CBS poll, approval for a military strike, even if innocent people abroad were to lose their lives, ranked at 75%.
Seventy-four percent of those responding said they thought Americans would have to give up some of their personal freedoms to make the country safer against the threat of terrorism, said AFP.
Though many Americans say they would not want to see Muslims and Arab-Americans placed under surveillance, they still oppose easing restrictions on the ability of law enforcement authorities to monitor private phone calls and e-mails, the CBS poll said, AFP reported.
The Newsweek poll likewise concurred.
But in the CBS survey, while more than half of all respondents said they did not think Arab-Americans were any more pre-disposed towards terrorism than other Americans, they still expected a strong backlash against Arab-Americans.
By a majority of 71%, poll respondents believe it is more urgent for authorities to beef up airport security, intelligence-gathering operations and technology rather than develop an antimissile shield.
While only 12% of those questioned by telephone said they feel "a lot less safe" than they did before Tuesday, 53% said they were now less likely to travel overseas by plane. Forty-six percent said they were reluctant to take a domestic airline flight.
Sixty-two percent of respondents said they were very confident in the ability of authorities to capture the people who planned the attack, while 29% said they were only somewhat confident.
The U.S. president's popularity has soared since Tuesday's attacks, which have so far left more than 5,000 people missing and dead, according to officials. Eighty-nine percent of poll respondents said they approved of the way Bush has handled the situation thus far.
The fiery tone of Bush's rhetoric has been seen as an attempt to mobilize the nation for an imminent deployment of ground troops in Afghanistan in a bid to eliminate Osama bin Laden and topple the Taliban regime.
Bush declared that the United States was "at war" with the "barbarians" responsible for the terrorist strikes and called bin Laden a "prime suspect."
However, experts have warned against acting on circumstantial evidence that may not prove bin Laden was responsible.
Bush has promised "sweeping, sustained, and effective" retaliation for the attacks and issued a direct warning to Bin Laden, who has denied that he was responsible for the attacks.
"If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he will be sorely mistaken," Bush said, AFP reported.
Bin Laden on Sunday denied any involvement in last week's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
"The U.S. is pointing the finger at me, but I categorically state that I have not done this," Bin Laden said in a statement faxed to the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) private news agency.
"Those who have done it, they have done it in their personal interest," Bin Laden said in the statement, which AIP said had been sent to them by his aide, Abdul Samad.
Bin Laden said he did not have the means to organize terrorist attacks and talked of the many restrictions placed on his contacts with the outside world by Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.
"I'm living in Afghanistan. I'm a follower of Amir Ul-Momineen [Omar] who does not allow me to participate in such activities," the statement, written in bin Laden's native language, Arabic, said.
The United States had immediately accused bin Laden of being the prime suspect in last week's attacks, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Friday presented a list with the names of 19 individuals of Middle Eastern origin, saying they had taken part in the operations.
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