It’s now been a week since Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu began their war of destruction and regime change in Iran, a conflict that has gone regional as Iran retaliated. Polls taken before the bombs started dropping showed there was far from any national consensus favoring an attack on Iran or any other foreign military adventure. While it takes some time to conduct public-opinion surveys, it seemed Americans really would prefer their leaders focus on the economy and the cost of living.

Now there’s enough postattack polling to make it clear this is a war that is very unpopular, much like its commander-in-chief in the White House. G. Elliott Morris collected eight polls taken since last weekend and found just one (from Fox News) showing net approval of the war at zero. The rest were negative, ranging from YouGov at minus-10 percent to CNN-SSRS at minus-18 percent. The polling is roughly at the same levels of Trump’s net job-approval ratings (currently at minus-11.2 percent at RealClearPolitics, minus-12.8 percent at Silver Bulletin, and minus-13 percent at Decision Desk HQ). As Morris points out, this is really a historical anomaly:

This [is] the most unpopular war at launch in the history of modern polling. For comparison, 92% of Americans backed the war in Afghanistan, and 72% supported the Iraq invasion when those conflicts began. If history is any guide, war polling only moves in one direction from here: down.

This [is] the most unpopular war at launch in the history of modern polling. For comparison, 92% of Americans backed the war in Afghanistan, and 72% supported the Iraq invasion when those conflicts began. If history is any guide, war polling only moves in one direction from here: down.

Nate Silver makes a similar observation about wars past and present:

[As of 2008] the relevant data set for the effect of wars on American politics was comprised of 4 or 5........

© Daily Intelligencer