U.S. Public Opinion on the War in Ukraine
The U.S. remains by far the biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine, having donated more than all other Western countries combined. And based on how much the war dominates discussion on the news and social media, you’d assume that it was foremost among Americans’ concerns.
But this doesn’t appear to be the case. In a Quinnipiac University poll taken on August 31st, Americans were asked:
In your opinion, what is the most urgent issue facing the country today: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, COVID-19, inflation, climate change, health care, racial inequality, immigration, election laws, abortion, gun violence, or crime?
The top answer was “inflation”, chosen by 27% of respondents. Next were “abortion”, “gun violence” and “climate change”, chosen by 9% of respondents each. Then came “immigration”, chosen by 8% of respondents. “Russia/Ukraine” was second to last, chosen by only 2% of respondents.
In fact, more respondents said “election laws” is the most important issue facing the country.
Back in May, Pew Research asked Americans whether the U.S. is providing too much or too little support to Ukraine. 42% said “too little”, and only 7% said “too much”. When they asked the same question in September, the percentages were 18% and 20%. (Though, of course, the U.S. did provide a lot of support in the interim.)
And what about ending the war?
Back in August, Gallup asked Americans whether the U.S. should “end conflict quickly, even if allow Russia to keep territory” or “support Ukraine in reclaiming territory, even if prolonged conflict”. 31% opted for the former, while 66% opted for the latter – a large majority against ending the conflict quickly.
Yet in a recent poll for the Quincy Institute, Americans were asked a very similar question and the pattern of responses was reversed. 57% said the U.S. should pursue diplomatic negotiations as soon as possible “even if it means Ukraine making some compromises with Russia” – whereas only 32% said the opposite.
The usual caveats about polling apply, of course: answers can vary a lot depending on how you ask the question; and recent events may shift opinion one way or another.
In the end, however, public opinion may not matter much for U.S. policy. As early as 2010, a majority of Americans favoured pulling troops out of Afghanistan. But the U.S. didn’t fully withdraw for another eleven years. So unless there’s a dramatic shift in opinion, I wouldn’t expect U.S. policy to change any time soon.
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Maybe the overall majority don’t know much about it, in detail. It’s a long time since I spent much time over there, but I can remember what the established MSM was like on my first visit across the pond. With much of it, there was nowhere else in the world, most of the time. Not much time allocated to foreign journalism then (in the 1990s).
Perhaps no.1 on that list would have been Joe Biden, had that been an option. Good ol’ Joe – he declares the pandemic over but wants to keep his state of emergency going. Aw, bless!
Now the Russian army is entering a state of catastrophic collapse, it’s probably a good time for Noah to admit his assessment some months ago was likely wrong, and that reducing levels of military aid could well have prolonged the war and increased suffering still further rather than shortened it or ensured success in bringing the Ukrainians to the negotiating table in a meaningful way.
With imponderables on all sides, there is nothing bad or “unintelligent” about being wrong on this (and imponderables remain so it is all mere opinion, if now better qualified opinion). Nevertheless I do think that reducing military equipment aid could have prolonged the war was an under-appreciated point and I suffered some flak on here at the time for making it!
I can’t pretend to be able to make accurate predictions but as an energy user, UK citizen and taxpayer no one has convinced me that the UK policy on Ukraine is in my interests
I am not sure it is in the interests of most Ukrainians either.
If the Russian army is “in a state of catastrophic collapse”, why would Zelensky make a very public show of signing Ukraine’s NATO application knowing full well he was going to be publicly turned down?
It seems like a strange move from the side that is winning.
Russia has drawn a line across a chunk of Ukrainian territory and said it’s Russia now and has made it clear that attacking those areas is like attacking Russia, raising the stakes of an attack on those areas by Ukraine.
Zelensky is trying to copy the move by calling the rest of Ukraine “NATO” and raising the stakes of any attack by Russia on the rest of the Ukraine. Which isn’t what you do desperately, knowing it’s not going to work, if you’re winning.
Ukraine is like when two groups of thugs start having a fight in a bar and start destroying the place. Ukraine is the bar. It’s going to get completely trashed.
It’s now weeks, possibly just days before the Ukrainians are in the northern part of Kherson. Russia’s loss of territory is accelerating indicating a cascade effect has been triggered. General Mobilisation has made things worse, not better for the Russian forces. There is just one operable bridge over the Dnieper, which is in range of the Ukranian Himars, so the industrial strength supply channel modern forces require is now effectively closed to the Russian forces north of the river. Himars are so accurate they can be used to target individual vehicles. These forces will now collapse. 25,000 Russian men are currently in that area. Once Ukrainians are in the northern part of Kherson, which they will be far sooner than many currently understand, the pressure on Putin and the apparency of disaster will be a whole order of magnitude higher. The Ukrainians are even making inroads towards Luhansk now, right near the Russian border. General Patraeus who has always previously been quite measured, has confirmed from what he can see the Russians are now showing every sign of catastrophic collapse, as in a rout.
Should we be pleased about this? If so, why? All my life this country and the US and other allies have been sticking their nose into other people’s countries and it has rarely (never?) ended well.
What’s your source?
David Patraeus, is not a good measure of character. Psychopaths are ‘measured’.
Here’s a nice little clip of Dave being measured when he attended Bildeberg 2016. I wouldn’t think for a moment that Dave and his buddies in their secret little club would have any interest in the profits of war and furthering their globalist cause.
David Betray Us is more like it.
If you’re referring to this article, I merely said it is “by no means clear” that arming Ukraine is the right thing to do. I also said: “it’s entirely possible that, thanks to all the arms we’ve sent, the Ukrainians will either defeat the Russians, or will hold out long enough to bargain for a good settlement”.
At the start of the war, many commentators simply took for granted that arming Ukraine was the right thing to do. I think the qualified scepticism I expressed in that article was perfectly reasonable.
More power to you Noah. The truth will out, and you speak it regularly.
Keep drinking the Kool Aid man. Everything’s gonna work out swell!
A very strange conclusion to draw even from the information presented by our biased MSM. Occupying vacated fields and villages and then coming to a dead stop when meeting any sort of resistance, and at the same time losing large quantities of men and equipment is hardly a conclusive advance.
When you consider that for the last month or so Russia has been operating with tens of thousands fewer troops whose 1 year contract extension has just ended, then the Ukrainian gains look rather underpowered.
In the next few days and weeks Russian manpower levels will rise to about quadruple the level during September, and since this will no longer be an SMO, then I suspect we will see a change to a more aggressive Russian stance.
You are welcome to come back and say I told you so when a Ukrainian flag is flying over Kherson, Sebastopol, Donetsk, Mariupol or Lugansk.
If anyone who has the faintest grasp of history seriously believes Russia will back down, God help you.
You are disrespecting the country which actually won the Second World War, causing them to lose 25-35 million souls.
Russia should be revered, not vilified. Just listen to Putin speak as regards what is really happening in the world.
But for the sheep out there – that’s what Hollywood/MSM has done to you.
Get a brain and think-while you freeze this winter.
God Bless America – the guardians of democracy….
‘You are disrespecting the country which actually won the Second World War’
You mean the same country (USSR) that was allied with Nazi Germany from 1939 until the latter attacked it in 1941, the only reason it switched to being it’s opponent?
‘Sheep’ / ‘Hollywood / MSM’ / ‘freeze this winter’ –
Must try harder.
Can you extrapolate further how you think Ukrainian forces will take back the entire Donbass and Crimea? Do you really think that is happening, or likely to?
I think that if you look at what has been actually happening it is that Ukrainian forces have been taking villages that the Russians have retreated from…at no point has the Ukrainian army defeated Russian soldiers in an actual battle. And all the while the Ukrainians are sustaining heavy losses, something the MSM never mention.
The Pentagon releases press briefings regularly in relation to ‘aid-packages’, i.e the money and weapons sent to Ukraine…if you read them, as I do, you will notice that the amount of weapons and ammunition sent to Ukraine is much less each time…their ‘offensive’ cannot be sustained for much longer in reality as weapons stores are becoming depleted.
Today Putin signed the final papers to incorporate the four regions into Russia. I suspect he has been waiting to legally formalise this (as they see it)….the conflict now takes on a very different aspect..with Ukraine acting unlawfully in attacking Russian territory..(as they see it)….I suspect things will change very dramatically over the next few weeks….
Your handle speaks volumes.
To give balance to the ‘news’ output in the Western world & to enable the sceptic to form his or her own opinion, here is a full transcript of Putin’s speech made on Friday 30th September 2022
I must confess to only being partway through. It’s here purely for balance & food for thought as I have absolutely no opinion on the content of his speech.
https://matthewehret.substack.com/p/putins-historic-speech-must-be-experienced?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Pretty predictable.
They’re all hot for war when their moral outrage is stirred up and nobody is talking about the price tag.
When the quick victory doesn’t materialise and the costs start showing, they’re not so keen on it
Shocker.
I’d definitely like to see a poll of how many in Europe want to continue supporting a war against Russia, vs a peace deal. I’ll bet enthusiasm for Ukrainian territorial integrity has waned a bit…
It would sink without trace if the truth behind this operation was known.
Just like over at the DT where everyone wants to fight down to the last Ukranian. A shameful shambles.
Without any consequences for the average American this isn’t really surprising. Here in the UK until quite recently it was nothing more than an opportunity for some easy virtue signalling for most people. With the looming energy crisis in the UK and Europe this winter however, I would expect attitudes to change considerably.
I agree, you know that most of them don’t even know where Ukraine is, they also know nothing of its history. I have said this before, but on a general level I don’t know anyone who gives much of a toss other than some vague idea that it’s ‘a shame’…I’m pretty sure though that once they can’t afford heating, food and their lifestyle is seriously impinged on they won’t be ‘for’ it.
Do you think the average person would even consider it sensible that they are being dragged into a potential nuclear war because one country has invaded…not another country….but a tiny part of another country, and that tiny part wants to become part of the country that’s supposedly invaded it? Seems crazy when it’s put in its simplest form…
‘but a tiny part of another country, and that tiny part wants to become part of the country that’s supposedly invaded it? Seems crazy when it’s put in its simplest form…’
Sudetenland
Whether Western support for Ukraine is justified turns on whether Putin’s adventurism halts at Eastern Ukraine or goes further. Let us recall that it did not halt at Crimea If it is likely, unchecked, to go further, then it gets closer and yet closer to Baltic State NATO members. Once it crosses into the territory of a NATO state, it then very much becomes our problem. This site has always been about evidence; scepticism based on data, evidence. What it has not been about is knee jerk prejudice based on preconceived intellectual positioning. This site follows where the evidence leads, and, in this case, the evidence inexorably leads towards Russian expansionism: ‘While the 9th Directorate of the FSB’s Fifth Service Department for Operational Information prepared for the occupation of Ukraine from July 2021, the 11th Unit of the Department for Operational Information, responsible for Moldova, was assessing plans for the next round of operations under the direction of Major General Dmitry Milyutin. In November 2020, the FSB’s strategic objective in Moldova was to bring about ‘The full restoration of the strategic partnership between Moldova and the Russian Federation’ RUSI Operation Z: The Death Throes of an Imperial Delusion Apr 22 FSB… Read more »
Please explain why I should care about Moldova and Georgia.
Apart from simple humanity, given what is happening in Eastern Ukraine, why not venture a glimpse into the future:
Chechnya 2009, Crimea 2014, Eastern Ukraine 2022, Moldova, Georgia……..Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, The Czech Republic, Poland…..
Unlikely? Poland is betting the price of 1,000 tanks, that’s an Army Corps, that it is not so unlikely, $6bn more or less and a further $5bn for U.S. tanks.
Maybe, just maybe, they understand their region and their near neighbour well.
After all, its only 60 or so years since that neighbour last invaded them.
I simply can’t see Russia invading any NATO or EU member. Maybe the Poles are right to spend that money, maybe not. We obviously have to draw the line somewhere but I thought that’s what NATO was for
As for humanity, maybe I’m just a horrible person but I don’t think it’s our job to fix the world nor to determine what needs fixing. We can’t even fix our own country
Did you ‘see’ Putin invading Ukraine, its borders guaranteed by the U.S. and Britain?
Where was the simple humanity regarding the plight of Russian speaking Ukrainians in the east for since the Minsk Accord was first floated.
Where’s the simple humanity of letting them decide their own future? Do you never think for a moment that they might genuinely want to join Russia as they have overwhelmingly voted? Or doesn’t it matter to you, or do you delude yourself that it’s not true?
Fat fingers!……not to you of course Roubles…to Mr Monro.
And there was I defending my position. I am glad I said it anyway.
They decided their own future in 1991, conclusively.
…so they can’t change their minds after years of genocidal attacks? Good to know….
Where do you stand on another independence referendum for Scotland?
I certainly wouldn’t advocate shelling them if they got a bit uppity. We even managed to avoid cross border shelling in Ireland during the troubles.
If Scotland invaded England, if Eire invaded Northern Ireland, we would repel that invasion by all means. Russian commanders engaged in the invasion of the Donbas have made it plain that there would have been no war there without (thinly disguised) Russian troops crossing the border.
I am not sure if you get my intentions correctly. I fully support the right of a people to express a view on their own future. The Minsk agreement even required that but neither Ukraine nor the European signatories would allow implementation of a vote. The one recently conducted was long overdue, and given the outcome it is easy to work out why Kiev never met their obligations in the first place. As with EU referenda, it was the wrong answer.
Mr Roubles, I immediately put my reply was not to you it was to mr monro…me and my fat fingers pressing the wrong buttons! We agree, Sorry for the confusion…
The idea that independence referenda should be held every few years is just plain silly.
There is little humanity on any side in war.
How stable was the Ukrainian border with Russia prior to 2014?
Venture a glimpse into the near past with the USA …
Libya, Iraq, Iran, Bosnia, Kosovo, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen plus many others and goodness only knows how many instances of interference in regime change…
In the future? Russia, Iran, Korea, China? and don’t forget, at the very least, the total destruction of the manufacturing capability of Europe….and it’s likely economic collapse….
Oh yes they are the white-hats!!
Whataboutery.
Democracy: the least worst system of government.
Is that worse than entirely fictional and only happening in your fevered imagination?
As usual a reversion to rudeness gives the game away.
An further back how many young Americans were leaving the country to avoid fighting. Which side were you applauding Monro (assuming you are old enough)?
I was applauding the British Army.
Crimea was part or Russia for +250 years until 1953.It ceded it to the Ukrainian SSR then for ease of admin. Wanting it back now is hardly unwarranted.
Ukraine made it plain early on that Crimea’s future could be discussed.
As Modi said: ‘This is not a time of war’. Invasion, war crimes, have removed the future of Crimea from the negotiating table now.
Everybody likes a winner, and it is looking distinctly possible that Ukraine is going to become a big-time loser, at which point – oh, look a squirrel.
Or not really:
Russian Deputy (Kherson) Stremousov alleged that a “small number” of what he called “corrupt marauders and other miscellaneous riffraff” were responsible for “gaps” on the battlefield. He singled out Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, saying he “allowed this situation to happen.”
Members of Russia’s parliament and regional officials have begun to level similar criticisms at the Russian military, alleging that not enough troops were deployed to hold the parts of eastern and southern Ukraine that Russian forces captured in the initial weeks of the conflict.
Col. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov, the head of Russia’s State Duma Defense Committee, said Thursday officials need to “stop lying” about developments on the ground.
“People know. Our people are not stupid,” Kartapolov said in an interview with a Russian journalist.
Keith nails it again
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=taEX5ruFx7Q&feature=youtu.be
Also, an even lower percentage (1%) considered Covid to be the most urgent issue facing the country.
Statistics / tables / charts / lies and damned lies etc:
Here’s the opinion of someone who opposes all violence:
The Putin controlled Russian Federation is a neo-Fascist and imperialist entity which invaded (ie instigated mass destruction and murder) in a neighbouring relatively liberal and democratic country.
It has then gone on to threaten the entire human race with nuclear annihilation if anyone dares to intervene.
End of.
Reagan..bombing of Libya, invasion of Grenada, and more..
Bush Snr…Gulf war, invasion of Panama, Bosnian war, and more..
Clinton….invasion of Haiti, War in Kosovo….
Bush Jnr…Iraq, war in Afghanistan, and more….
Obama….Syria, Libya, Iraq..and more…
The ONLY country to use nuclear weapons…..
facts, evidence, data, history….
Try doing the USA with a straight face…I dare ya!…LOL!
The ‘end of’ things can also be the beginning.
The Putin controlled Russian Federation is a product of a neo-Fascist imperialist supranational group of ultra wealthy Malthusian eugenicists imposing their wealth, power and influence through a network of secret societies, round tables, think tanks, alphabet agencies, NGO’s and charitable tax free foundations, which can be recorded at least as far back to Cecil Rhodes last will and testament (See Tragedy and Hope, a history of the world in our time – Prof. C. Quigley), the baton being handed on over successive generations.
They have invaded (instigated mass destruction and murder) the minds and violated the bodies of men, who, in turn, have become slaves to the ever illusive carrot of security, induced by a carefully controlled and addictive diet of fear and division from a complicit media.