Thread: Almost half of Republicans want war with North Korea, a new poll says.

Almost half of Republicans want war with North Korea, a new poll says. Is it the Trump Effect?

By Aaron Blake
October 15 at 8:30 AM

There was a pretty striking finding in Thursday's Quinnipiac University poll: Fully 46 percent of Republicans — a plurality — said they would support a preemptive strike against North Korea.

That's nearly half of President Trump's party that is ready for war — today — with Kim Jong Un, his nuclear weapons and all. (Forty-one percent said they opposed a preemptive strike.)

It’s no surprise that Republicans are more hawkish on this than Democrats are; that’s generally the case on foreign policy. But basically nobody is talking about the prospect of a strike right now. Even when Trump talks about it, he’s responding to North Korea threatening the United States or its allies.

Yet it also seems possible that Trump’s ramped-up rhetoric on this could be having an effect on his base. Trump in August promised “fire and fury” if North Korea ran afoul of him. Last month, he threatened in his speech at the United Nations to “totally destroy” the country — a threat that seemed to tie average North Koreans to their government’s demise. He has repeatedly called Kim “Rocket Man” and generally proved fond of the kind of saber-rattling we expect from the other side of this standoff.

So does he suddenly have Republicans gearing up to wave the flag of war? Maybe.

There has been limited polling on this question over the years, but the new survey does show a marked increase from previous ones. In 2006, for example, a Fox News-Opinion Dynamics poll asked whether the United States should continue with diplomacy or use a preemptive strike “to stop North Korea from continuing to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.” In that case, 20 percent of respondents overall and just 28 percent of Republicans picked the preemptive strike.

However, a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted a couple of weeks ago also differs markedly from the new Quinnipiac survey. The late-September Post-ABC poll asked whether the United States should launch a military strike “only if North Korea attacks the U.S. or its allies first” or “before it can attack the U.S. or its allies.” In that case, 23 percent overall and 30 percent of Republicans picked the preemptive-strike option, and Republicans were about two to one against it.

It’s difficult to believe that Republican support for a preemptive strike suddenly rose by 16 points over the past two weeks, given that all of Trump’s comments noted above came before both polls — and given that there haven’t been many other developments of late. More likely, it seems, the truth lies somewhere between the two polls, with the questions’ wording affecting how people responded.

But it’s also true that the president is a politician who is very focused on what his base likes. He has proved he can affect its views and priorities. So perhaps it’s no surprise that the GOP is at least somewhat more ready to strike North Korea today than it was back in 2006. And either way, it’s still a substantial proportion of the party.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.8a783b9432e6

What's changed the view of Americans on North Korea is what North Korea has done and what rhetoric they've spewed, not Trump. This is all on North Korea, not the United States, Trump or Americans. It is a known fact that the United States will not accept a nuclear North Korea. That will not happen, certainly not under this President. Our "Intel" was too busy chasing Russians posting on Facebook, fake Dossiers, and Trump Supporters than it was on North Korea's nuclear missile technology which has resulted in our learning about their systems after the fact, which leaves the US no options but a military removal of these weapons from North Korea and all that entails.

All anyone has to do to understand what is going on here is think back to WWII and ask what if Germany had the bomb before we did? These weapons in North Korea have to be taken out as soon as possible, and probably should have been taken out several months ago, truth be told. The sooner the better in my opinion. Delays only increase NK's capability and preparedness with no advantage to ours. I also have a very serious concern that our CIA has deliberately failed to report the facts on North Korea, because it now sees itself as a political instrument for the Democratic Party and is manipulating "Intel" in ways that harm our country.