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Iran President's Office via AP
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, visits the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility in Iran in this April 8, 2008 file photo.
Some 63 percent of Americans would be in favor of taking military action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, according to a new survey.
The Pew Research Center asked 26,210 people in 21 different countries to give their views on Iran’s alleged plans to get nuclear weapons, finding widespread opposition to the idea in the West and also in some countries in the Mideast.
More than nine in 10 people in the United States, U.K., France and Germany were against Iran getting nuclear weapons. Two percent of Americans said they were in favor.
About 61 percent of Democrats and 79 percent of Republicans backed military force to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, with 31 percent of Democrats and 15 percent of Republicans saying this should be accepted if it happens.
The survey found that 76 percent of Jordanians, 66 percent of Egyptians and 62 percent of Lebanese people were also against the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran.
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Iran insists its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes, and says it has no intention of making weapons.
“In most countries, there is majority support among opponents of a nuclear-armed Iran for international economic sanctions to try to stop Tehran’s weapons program,” the Pew report laying out the findings, “A Global ‘No’ to a Nuclear-Armed Iran,” reads.
The New Yorker's Laura Secor traveled to Iran in March for the country's parliamentary elections, and she joins Morning Joe to discuss an election that occurred with Iran's nuclear ambitions as the backdrop.
“The Chinese and the Russians are notable dissenters in this regard. The poll also found majorities in Western Europe and the United States disposed to taking military action to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. Again, the Russians and Chinese disagreed,” it added.
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At schools, in shops, and on the streets of big cities and small towns, daily life plays out in Iran.
Some 77 percent of Russians were against a nuclear-armed Iran, but of those only 46 percent backed tougher sanctions and just 24 percent approved of military action. In China, 54 percent were opposed, and of those 38 percent backed more sanctions and 30 percent would support the use of force.
Roughly half of Washington’s European allies would support military action to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, the survey found.
Iranians already feeling pain of sanctions
Some 50 percent of people in Pakistan were in favor of Iran acquiring nukes, compared to 11 per cent against, with a large number of people not expressing an opinion.
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Lebanon was split along religious lines, with 73 percent of Shiite Muslims, 31 percent of Christians and just 5 percent of Sunni Muslims in favor. Iran is overwhelmingly a Shiite country.
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Those 63% that agree that the US should use military force should enlist their children and send them off to Iran. Tell them that they are fighting for "OUR FREEDOM"!
63% of Americans polled are sociopathic idiots just as they were before the GOP TX war criminal cabal invaded Iraq in 2003 and killed 30,000 Iraqis in a few weeks during the US bombardment.
A bit over 26000 polled in a half dozen countries.How many were in the United States.?There are over 300 million people in our country.What,?maybe 100 million adults.How many were polled out of the 100 million??I wasn't nor were anyone that I know.This article is BS and more BS.
lol it is called a scientific poll. It is called SCIENCE. Of course not all 300 million people are surveyed. LOL. Dumb a$$.
Even the cold war was all about lies and propaganda to keep the military-industrial complex going. Both sides were continually propagandized with the message that one was fully capable and imminently intent on starting war with the other. Our systems were not all that mission-ready at any given moment, and half or more of Russia's ICBMs would have blown up in their silos because they were frozen solid in them. The people of neither side wanted to go to war with the other...it was all the governments' posturings. Everybody had spies in high places on both sides--the Brits had spies in both MI-5 and MI-6 highly placed, there were Russian, Israeli, and other spies in the FBI and CIA, double agents working both sides of the fence--it was all a big show for trillions in cash and enormous political profiteering on both sides.
The American press jumped all over that famous quote from Khrushchev, "We will bury you." That was supposed to clinch the American public's disdain and anger at the Soviets. The problem with the premise of that event, after all, is that what Khrushchev actually said to a reporter was mistranslated; what he actually said was, "We will be present at your burial," simply because he believed the Communist system would outlast capitalism and democracy. It was a simple statement of belief, not a threat to annihilate us.
We don't need an enemy. What we need to develop are more genuine international economic and political friendships, which we could have developed a long time ago instead of making Russia and China our perpetual antagonists.
well, here is how the percentages break sown:
21%--the americans jews
21%--the pamela geller Anti-Muslim group of hate freaks
21%--the kkk, neo-nazis and the rest of the hate group freaks
equals 63%
You may have a point, tls7685, but in my world, the progressive American Jewish community does not want war to settle the Palestinian issue...just like the American people, when we found out the lies about Iraq turned against that war, don't want the war in Afghanistan to continue because of the political bull@!$%# that has screwed up the policy toward the Middle East in general...