What the polls said was this -- a majority of Americans support the war IF it is a UN effort -- support for a unilateral war was not there which is the reason why Bush was forced to at least pretend to be interested in going with the UN. AFTER pretending to be serious about the UN, and AFTER scaremongering about mushroom clouds etc., Americans began to feel like this was something that had to be done in defense of America - and AFTER the invasion support was based on "support our troops".
No, GST. That's what YOU interpretated the polls to mean.
This elaborate rationalization - Americans only supported the war IF it was a UN effort, so when the UN didn't support it, American support went away - uh, no, wait, that didn't happen, um, so Americans were scare-mongered into supporting the war! Yeah, that's it, also they blindly supported the troops, and said they supported the war for the troops' sake even though they didn't really. Yeah, that must be the reason!
A bit convoluted, yes? I have a simpler explanation for you.
A majority of Americans bought the idea that Saddam Hussein was a very dangerous guy to let alone or to back off from, and that taking him out would make the Middle East a better place and be good for American security. This majority would rather have had UN support than not, but if the war was a good idea with UN support, then it was still a good idea without UN support. Clare Short may believe that only the UN has the moral authority to ever wage a war, but most Americans don't.
Now then, isn't that simpler? Remember Occam's razor. |
