http://www.newsmax.com/US/isis-isil-war-barack-obama/2015/11/23/id/703269/Newsmax
Poll: 49 Percent Want War on ISIS
Monday, November 23, 2015 01:05 PM
By: Clyde Hughes and Cathy Burke
Americans are beginning to sound the call for a war on ISIS — unhappy both with President Barack Obama's response to the radical Islamic terrorists' attacks in Paris and his strategy to defeat them, new polls show.
In one Rasmussen Reports survey released Monday, 49 percent think the nation should formally declare war on the Islamic State, 28 percent disagree, and a significant 23 percent are undecided as yet.
However, among voters who consider ISIS a "very serious" threat, 61 percent believe the United States to declare war, the survey finds.
Still, the survey finds only 25 percent of respondents think America should be taking the lead in a war against ISIS, with 65 percent saying the United States should be part of a broader coalition. Only 4 percent think we should leave the fight to others.
The margin of error of the poll is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
In another sign of Americans' growing frustration over the nation's response, a second Rasmussen survey released Monday finds just 36 percent of likely voters give Obama good or excellent marks for his reaction to the ISIS attacks on Nov. 13 in Paris that killed 130 innocents, while 45 percent rate the response as poor.
In this survey, the results show a sharp partisan divide, with 61 percent of Democrats giving Obama positive marks for his response to the Paris attacks, while 74 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of voters not affiliated with either major party think his reaction has been a poor one.
The same poll also finds just 17 percent of voters think prominent Muslims — including Islamic religious leaders — have stepped up to criticize terror attacks like the one in Paris; 68 percent say the need to speak out more.
The margin of error in this survey is also plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Meanwhile, a third poll, by CBS News, finds a majority of Americans think the president is clueless on plans going forward to fight the radical Islamic terror group.
Asked specifically if the president has a "clear plan for dealing with ISIS militants, or not," 66 percent said he does not — including 88 percent of Republicans, 45 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of independents.
Only 23 percent said they believe Obama has a clear plan, including 40 percent of Democrats, 19 percent of independents and seven percent of Republicans.
The slew of polls reflecting the dissatisfaction with the nation's current posture in the wave of terrorism came just a day after Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev charged, according to Interfax, that ISIS gained strength "possibly partly due to irresponsible U.S. politics" that made it a priority of ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad rather and eliminating terrorism, said Bloomberg Business.
And in fact, according to the CBS News Poll, half the country now supports the use of ground troops in Syria and Iraq to battle the ISIS. The poll found 50 percent are okay with ground troops — 66 percent of Republicans, 43 percent of Democrats and 45 percent of independents — while 42 percent are against using ground troops, including 48 percent of Democrats, 46 percent of independents and 29 percent of Republicans.
The Obama administration has argued against extensive use of ground troops in Syria and Iraq to fight ISIS militants, claiming that diplomacy was needed instead to create long term change, said the Wall Street Journal.
"The lessons of the last decade show us that a U.S. ground force cannot impose stability or a new system of governance on countries ravaged by extremism and sectarianism — local forces have to do that, with our support," Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, told the Journal.
