Media "coaxed" Gulf War support (a blast from the past)

The right-wing media's manipulation of public opinion isn't new, and sometimes it lingers for years after an event takes place.

As late as 2001, Gallup still polled Americans about their support for the 1991 Gulf War, and Gallup's own 2001 synopsis is very revealing. The summary reads in part, "Despite the eventual popularity of the Persian Gulf War, Americans had to be coaxed into support for that effort." It says that in August 1990, a majority of Americans "opposed the United States' initiating military efforts to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait." By November, opposition stood at an astounding 51% to 37%.

But this report reveals that after the George H.W. Bush regime beat its war drum, public opinion swung by 27 points to favor this campaign.

Plus, right before the war began in January, Gallup showed that public opinion had made a 16-point swing towards Bush's position just since December because "the Bush administration had made considerable progress in persuading the public about the importance of forcing Iraq out of Kuwait." Support apparently increased much more during the war.

Nonetheless, in February, Americans still opposed a ground war by 74% to 17%. But after this phase of the war was launched and The Media's "rally effect" took hold, Americans ostensibly supported it by 84% to 11%.

I blame The Media because it was they who gave the Bush regime the soapbox to wheedle support from the public. If the press wasn't so one-sided, most people would have never relented in their opposition to the war.

In the ensuing decade, support for that war never declined much. This helped encourage the later Iraq War.

If public officials insist on basing their actions on polls, they should base them on what the polls said before The Media opened its billering trap. Not like the Bushes ever cared much about public opinion. When the people weren't on their side, the Bush crime family would feed their talking points to the press until they were.