Very Interesting

by BuddhistPunk

Posted to Poetry and Politics on 2003-01-08 04:24:00

Americans for Victory Over Terrorism (AVOT), a project of EMPOWER.org, released a nationwide survey of college and university students’ attitudes and opinions about various facets of the war against terrorism. Following are poll results on a telephone survey of 634 college students nationwide conducted May 2-12, 2002, spanning all fields of study.* This is the single most extensive survey of college students’ attitudes about terrorism, the Middle East and the Bush administration this year. +

Students Evaluate the War Against Terror

While President Bush receives very high marks for his handling of the presidency (70% approval), a majority of college students (57%) believe the policies of the United States are “at least somewhat responsible” for the September 11th terrorist attacks.
A clear majority of college students (60%) believe “developing a better understanding of the values and history of other cultures and nations that dislike us” is a better approach to preventing terrorism than investing in strong military and defence capabilities at home and abroad” (33%).

— 66% of arts & humanities students would embrace the “understanding option” while 28% would prefer the “military option.” By comparison, 55% of economic and business majors would chose the “understanding option” while 41% would prefer the “military option.”

— Despite a very limited willingness to serve in the military and fight overseas, fully 66% believe the U.S. government “has the right to invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein is still attempting to build weapons of mass destruction” and 79% believe the U.S. “has the right to overthrow” Hussein. Although the questionnaire wording does differ, support for removing Hussein from power is at least as great, if not actually greater, among college students than among the adult population. That support for such an invasion is 58% among those who acknowledge that they would personally “evade” the draft is particularly noteworthy.

Attitudes About Western Culture

College students are known for their tolerance and occasional practice of alternative beliefs, value systems and cultures. But this tolerance has led to a state of belief where American college students are unwilling to make a moral judgment about their value systems and culture.

— American students intensely and overwhelmingly disagree with the statement that Western culture is superior to Arab culture. Only 16% believe Western culture is superior to Arab culture
but 79% do not.

— Just 3% of college students “strongly agree” that Western culture is superior to Arab culture, while 43% “strongly disagree.”

37% of all college students said they would be “likely to try to evade the draft,” while another 21% would be willing to serve “but only if stationed in the United States.” Only 35% of college students today would be “willing to serve and fight anywhere in the world.”

Despite a very limited willingness to serve in the military and fight overseas, fully 66% believe the U.S. government “has the right to invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein is still attempting to build weapons of mass destruction” and 79% believe the U.S. “has the right to overthrow” Hussein. Although the questionnaire wording does differ, support for removing Hussein from power is at least as great, if not actually greater, among college students than among the adult population. That support for such an invasion is 58% among those who acknowledge that they would personally “evade” the draft is particularly noteworthy.

Knowledge of Political Leadership:

Students were given some of the most prominent people in the news since 9/11 based on their titles:
— Yasser Arafat More college students (55%) correctly identified Yasser Arafat than any member of President Bush’s cabinet, and he is much better known than his Israeli counterpart. Nonetheless, 4% of college students think Arafat is the prime minister of Israel. Only one-third (35%) of America’s college students correctly identified Ariel Sharon as the Israeli prime minister. (One individual named Yitzhak Rabin as the current prime minister, even though he was assassinated almost a decade ago, while another said Vladimir Putin, the current Russian president, was the prime minister of Israel.)
— Condoleezza Rice Only 19% correctly identified Condoleezza Rice as the national security advisor. Other responses included Dick Cheney, Tom Daschle (also identified by one person as defence secretary), Robert Byrd, Dick Armey, Alan Greenspan, and Ari Fleischer.
— Colin Powell While half (49%) of all college students can name their secretary of state, 12% incorrectly think he is secretary of defence and 6% wrongly guessed that he is the national security advisor. By comparison, only a third (32%) correctly identify Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defence, while 5% think he is the national security advisor and 1% named him as the secretary of state. One student thought British Prime Minister Tony Blair was the American secretary of defence.

*This poll was conducted by The Luntz Research Companies
+The margin of error is +/-4%.”

BP.

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