Only 12% Think U.S. Should Step Up Involvement in Syria

Monday, August 22, 2011
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The Obama administration has increased its criticism of Syria’s violent response to anti-government protests, and both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are now calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. But most U.S. voters continue to think America should mind its own business when it comes to Syria.

Just 12% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the United States should get more directly involved in the Syrian crisis, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Sixty-six percent (66%) think the United States should leave the Syrian situation alone. Twenty-two percent (22%) are not sure which course is better. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

This marks little change in voter sentiment from early May when Syria’s internal political crisis began gaining more news coverage and is consistent with views expressed earlier this year about U.S. involvement in the domestic turmoil in Egypt and other Arab countries.

Largely unchanged, too, is the view by just 26% of voters that the Obama administration is doing a good or excellent job in response to the political situation in Syria. Twenty-eight percent (28%) now view the administration’s handling of the political crisis in Syria as poor, up five points from early May.

Twenty-seven percent (27%) believe a change in the Syrian government will be good for the United States. Only six percent (6%) think such a change will be bad for America, down five points from the previous survey, while 28% feel it would have no impact. But also similar to findings in May, a sizable number (38%) of voters are undecided.

The national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on August 19-20, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Only three percent (3%) of voters see Syria as an ally of the United States, while 26% characterize the Middle Eastern country as an enemy. Fifty-two percent (52%) think it falls somewhere in between the two, but 19% more aren’t sure.

Syria borders Israel to the northeast along the Golan Heights and has long been one of the Jewish state’s chief enemies. U.S. policymakers see Syria as a major sponsor of terrorism and consider it a destabilizing force in the region.

Only 56% of voters say they have been following recent news reports about the political unrest in Syria, with 18% who have been following Very Closely. This means voters are following the situation in Syria even less closely than they were in May.

There continues to be virtually no partisan disagreement about U.S. involvement in the Syrian crisis. Roughly two-thirds of Republicans, Democrats and voters not affiliated with either party think the United States should leave the situation alone.

However, most Democrats (53%) rate the administration’s response to the Syrian situation as good or excellent, a view shared by just seven percent (7%) of Republicans and 18% of unaffiliated voters.

But GOP voters are more likely than the others to view Syria as an enemy of the United States.

Voter confidence about the short-term course of the war in Afghanistan has fallen to its lowest level in nearly two years, while confidence about the direction in Iraq over the next six months has dropped to the lowest point in almost five years of surveying.

Support for continuing U.S. military action in Libya has fallen to its lowest level yet. Just 20% now believe the United States should continue its military action there.

Compared to the four presidents who have followed him, Ronald Reagan had a more limited view of when to send U.S. military force into action overseas, and 75% of voters still agree with him that “the United States should not commit its forces to military action overseas unless the cause is vital to our national interest.â€