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Recent polling has already shown that the American people are fairly divided about our war kinetic military action with Libya, but if you introduce the issue of the operation’s huge price tag likely voters overwhelmingly believe it isn’t worth the cost. A new poll from the Hill finds that, by a by a two-to-one margin, likely voters don’t think the operation is worth the cost to taxpayers:
The survey found that 25 percent of all those polled said the operation is worth the initial $550 million price tag, while 51 percent said it was not and 24 percent remain undecided.
Pentagon officials last week said the opening days of the bombing and no-fly zone mission ran up a $550 million tab. As NATO and other coalition aircraft take on the lion’s share of the combat sorties, U.S. military officials expect the Pentagon’s costs to level out at around $40 million a month.
This is America’s third war in a Muslim country. It lacks a well-defined mission or a realistic end-game strategy. Even our top military and civilian personnel admit it isn’t in our nation’s vital interest and that Libya wasn’t a direct threat to our national security.
It is not surprising that, after months of near-endless deficit hysteria and politicians insisting we need to cut basic services meant to help Americans, the voters have concluded we don’t have a few hundred million to waste on more military adventurism.
Popular support for this conflict was fairly low to begin with, and I predict it is going to drop very quickly as the price tag keeps growing.
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Thank god we’re not a democracy nor any longer a republic, or we could have some input other than polls.
Yep.
But it’s America’s War™!
Americans aren’t supposed to care, or even talk, about the cost.
Why do Americans hate the troops?
So conservatives claim to be against it? Is that just because Obama is doing it, or they think we should bomb more?
Proof that the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) was a necessary and proper operation, after all: you can’t rollout a new product without preparing your target audience, in this case the American taxpayer, about the Enemy and the Need to Destroy Him.
The only thing most Americans know about Kaddafi (and a tyrant with as many spellings of his name is gonna be hard to nail down in American opinion, anyway) is that he blew that PanAm plane out of the sky and that he was Bush’s friend for giving up his WMDs.
That’s it. Why we are at war with him? A complete and utter mystery. Now, who do you think will get tossed off American Idol this week?
Right now I expect Obama to win re-election because I don’t see a viable Republican challenger, but I think something like Libya could spiral out of control into a way to get a nutball challenger elected. Either a protracted stalemate or an escalation of US involvement could drag Obama down for the count.
The GOP has a long history (October surprise, the Paris peace talks, Ike in Korea) of undermining Democratic presidents it wants to topple, using the party’s corporate influence and CIA (or ex-) operatives. There are so many targets of opportunity abroad nowadays, it is very hard to see which the GOP might pick to make life hell for Team Obama and defeat their standard-bearer.
But you know it’s gonna happen, in fact it always does.
So conservatives claim to be against it. Is it because obama is doing it?
Probably, just like the democrats when bush took this country to war.
Hypocrisy on both sides.
Yes.
But but but…. it’s Europe’s war and U.S. can’t abandon its NATO allies in their hour of need. /Juan Cole
Totally OT, but I’ve been clicking on those stupid Obama ads all day. Am I costing them money every time I click or just the first time?
I can’t wait to get home from work and click again. That’s sick, I know.
Live by teh sTupId, die by teh sTupId.
“The Servant Problem” (Mother Jones, Apr. 4, 2011) that, in general, is a great commentary on this.
“There are so many targets of opportunity abroad nowadays, it is very hard to see which the GOP might pick to make life hell for Team Obama and defeat their standard-bearer”
Obama is doing a good job of that all by himself by launching a war of aggression without even bothering to get congressional approval and that’s just the latest thing he’s doing. The only real October surprise I could see would be if the Republicans found a viable candidate, which other than that, it won’t matter except due to Obama’s own unforced errors.
The thing that amazes me about that poll is that 24% are undecided. We have become a nation of “I don’t know and I don’t care.” How can that many people have no opinion about this toxic “war” ????
It’s just because Obama is doing it. Same thing happened to Clinton re: Kosovo. “No exit plan,” “wasteful spending,” etc. Of course, when Bush did the same thing in Iraq/Afghanistan (in spades), that was Totally Different.
Yes, and we even have conservatives swinging by here to mock & deride us when we bring up Iraq – saying that somehow in some way Iraq is completely different and can in no way be compared to Libya. Neat trick, that one.
Not sick at all. As an FDL supporter don’t I make money for the site everytime I click on an ad?
Mods, couldn’t we help FDL’s coffers through a systematic campaign of clickin?
That would teach em to mess with us hippies.*g*
Its a bit farcical to read posts here now that theres several huge obama relection campaign ads on the site. I mean talk about irony in the worst way.
Maybe someone (me? hmmm?) should post a diary and try to organize costing the O people some money.
IOKIYAR – always and forevah!!! ;)
I think we could add this new acronym to our culture: It’s Different If a Republican Does It: IDIARDI.
You may have just started something!
As a variation on “if a tree falls in the forest and no hears it did it happen?,” one friend asked in mock innocence that since promised to close Guantanamo and he was partially elected on that promise, “If Guantanamo is still open, does that mean Obama didn’t get elected?”
Check out the ad with Chuck Norris for “Total Gym.” I clicked on that one too as today is the new national holiday called “Massive Irony Day.” Or, should we call it “National Day of Disgust”?
Different ads run for different IP hits and locations, courtesy of benignware mining agents.
Mixed consequences, but for some of the ads I’d say it’s a dirty wash. In the random survey sciences, one respondent = 1,000 ‘consumers’. When you click, you’re encouraging them to think their puke is edible: they’ll feed you more.
Even better still is that our man in Benghazi, Khalifa Heftar, is currently involved in a power struggle to try and get the rebels under a unified command. If this cannot be done, they cannot win. If he manages to do it, we’ll be even more involved, and the results will not be pretty.
this is not our third war on Muslim countries, it is our fourth war… or maybe our fifth or sixth war.
For sure, we can count Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya. But an argument could be made that Somalia and Yemen should be in there too, since we have bombed them.
Not surprising that people are doubtful about Libya. With it now taking on the characteristic of another stalemate, anything else WOULD be surprising.
Very early, Obama needed to make it plain to the military supporting Ghadafy that forces were being marshalled to force him from power, and quickly and irrevocably. Instead, he did his usual farting and tap-dancing on a moral issue, and now he’s got one more spinning plate to deal with.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer “centrist”.
That’s only the vote count in terms of people. I wonder how a vote on Libya would look in terms the free speech dollars of our corporate citizens.
Oh well, at least the public appears to be far more sane than the DC critters.
“Why are we at war with him?”
Why did we threaten Egypt’s military with shutting off the sugar tit?
Teddy, you can’t separate these. Not without some convoluted thinking that would do justice to Donald Rumsfelt.
It was inevitable that the public was going to sour on this war really fast.
I continue to believe it was the right thing to do given the options. Now the US is scaling back and it’s up to Libyans and NATO to figure out the endgame.