War on terror poll - Part 1

I was flipping thru channels on July 25, 2006 when I came upon Mr. Bill O’Riely doing his show. Now I happened to stop for a moment as he has interesting commentary from time to time, and I even agree with some thoughts he has to varying degrees. I was just in time to hear the results of a poll, which had 35,000 respondents. Here are the results, 91% responding believe that Americans do NOT understand the war on terror, 9% Do understand it. That is both appalling and without surprise.

I find it appalling that more Americans are out of touch with what is happening. Our troops are in the world fighting for a cause we have stated is important to us; and if the poll is accurate, we have no idea what we are doing. If it is even close to the mark, the poll is scary. How can we, via the leaders we elected, send our sons and daughters out to protect us from something we can’t describe? How can we be protected if we do not know what we are fighting? How can we not know more when the stakes are so high?

Some would blame our leaders, and they do deserve part of the blame. They have chosen the plans, means, and targets of our ‘war’. They have given us reasons for each action, though some have proven to be dubious or outright lies. Our leaders are accountable for each life lost, as it is the responsibility of the leadership to create and maintain a cohesive and attainable plan for the military to enact. Our leaders are also responsible to disseminate those plans and actions to us the citizens so that we can approve or disapprove their actions, shown most clearly through our voting. If there is confusion in what we are understanding then it stands to reason that there is confusion in the dissemination of information. This leads on to believe that the chain up is as confused as the chain down. That is a problem.

Blame for not understanding what is the actual ‘war’ on terror also falls on the citizens (myself included). We must seek out the answers that are readily available to us. If more people actually too the time to look up and read about the information that is out there, then the phrase “war on terror” would be laughed at. As I’ve stated in other posts, it’s not possible to have a war on an ideal. Yet many agree and support this never-ending, impossible ‘war’, based on the hyped presentations made by various cable network news stations. The colorful and glossed over style of this ‘war’ resembles more of a marketing campaign than actual information. The fact that the average American allows this to be enough is their own fault.

Let me digress a moment, because I am not a pacifist. I accept and strongly believe that we need to defend our nation against all threats to it. I have no problem in the use of force to achieve various goals that support our way of life. Whether our troops are fighting in Iraq to stabilize the region, gain the United States a strategic foothold in the Middle East, or ensuring that we have a guaranteed supply of oil for decades to come (or more likely different degrees of all the above) I can live with that use of force. All of those reasons benefit the nation as a whole. I just would like an honest and direct answer as to which it is.

Continued in part 2...