Striking Iran?

James Besser reports that a new Zogby poll shows increasing support for a military strike on Iran.

Last week’s poll by Zogby International came as the Bush administration ratchets up both its warlike rhetoric and its sanctions against Teheran and war opponents intensify efforts to erect obstacles to U.S. military action. According to the national survey, 52 percent of likely voters now would support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from growing nuclear — and 53 percent believe such a strike is likely before next year’s presidential election. Republicans, according to the survey, are far more likely to support the military option, but still, 41 percent of Democrats indicated support. In one surprise, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) emerged as the candidate “best equipped” to deal with the Iranian threat, selected by 21 percent of respondents. Clinton was followed by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani at 15 percent. … The Jewish numbers in the Zogby poll — with 48 percent “very supportive” of a U.S. military strike and 20 percent “somewhat supportive” — are dramatically different from last year’s American Jewish Committee survey, in which only 38 percent said they supported U.S. military action.

That first paragraph isn’t exactly accurate as war opponents are also objecting to diplomatic tools such as the boycott of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. I’m not sure that results about Hillary Clinton are that surprising. Given that much of the support for striking at Iran is coming from the Jewish community, which is strongly Democratic, it would follow that Hillary Clinton would be viewed as the candidate most likely to deal with Iran effectively. However there are other polls.

But critics point out that the Zogby poll is not consistent with other national surveys. A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll suggested opposition to the military option is growing, with 68 percent of Americans saying they would oppose a decision to strike Iranian targets. And in a Fox news poll, only 29 percent of Americans advocated military action “before President Bush leaves office,” with 54 present preferring to “let the next president deal with Iran.”

So the question remain if the differences in the results are due to timing (like maybe the Zogby poll took place after the revelation that Interpol has issued warrants in the Argentina bombing) or possibly due to the wording.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.