Poll: Most Say Military Not Ready to Face New Threat

(CBS)
Twenty-eight percent of Americans offered an A grade when asked to assess the condition of the military, while 39 percent gave it a B, the largest percentage for any letter.
Twenty-two percent, meanwhile, offered a C grade. Just five percent volunteered a D grade, and even fewer – two percent – gave the condition of the military an F.
Majorities of Democrats and Republicans, as well as women and men, offered an A or B grade.
Yet after more than eight years of war, most Americans say the military is spread too thin to deal effectively with a new threat. Just one in three say the military is adequately prepared to respond to a new threat, while 56 percent say it is not.

(CBS)
Americans have a more positive outlook when it comes to the question of whether the government is giving troops enough resources and military equipment to succeed in battle, but there is significant skepticism.
One in two Americans say the U.S. is giving troops sufficient resources and equipment, while 37 percent say it is not doing so. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say the government is providing adequate resources and equipment.
The poll also found that the vast majority of Americans oppose a return to a military draft. Just one in five say they favor a return to the draft, while 76 percent say they oppose it.
In Gallup polling from February of 1980, 59 percent favored a return to the draft. But that percentage fell to 25 percent by 1985 and stood at 18 percent in 2007.
While majorities of Americans in every category oppose a return to the draft, the groups most likely to favor a draft were men and older Americans.
The poll was taken as part of CBS News' "Where America Stands" series, an in-depth look at where the country stands today on key topics and an outlook for the future decade.
See More Stories and Videos from the Series: Where America Stands
Read the Complete Poll
This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,048 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone December 17-22, 2009. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.
This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.
Popular in Politics
- Officials on Benghazi: "We made mistakes, but without malice" 439 Comments
- Anthony Weiner comeback try begins: Running for NYC mayor 67 Comments
- Major immigration overhaul passes first big test
- Top IRS official to invoke 5th Amendment at congressional testimony 150 Comments
- U.S. IDs several men possibly responsible for Benghazi attack
- Will tornado relief funding escape politics?
- Va. GOP candidate: Planned Parenthood "more lethal" for blacks than KKK 1224 Comments
- Poll: Most think IRS targeting was deliberate 187 Comments














Since the armchair investor, Wall Street jockeys, and old men are suggested as mostly in favor of the draft and war, along with the GOP, makeit simple. That group should ENLIST...then picking up their industrial military complex profits might not be considered illegal... which should be considered profiteering. If Americans would look at and think about where and for what, the military has been used and abused, for the past nine years, it would be.
In the end, we gripe about the fact others don't wear "recognizable uniforms" or have a military 'hierarchy' that we agree with, and from that say the war is "unfair" or that the other side is not playing the game right and so are not POWS but 'enemy combatants'
Call them enemy combatants, rat turds, whatever--the fact is war is NOT FAIR and people do not have to "play" by our rules--after all people are DYING. If the purpose of war is to alter a society and bankrupt it--we are losing.
We are losing in Iraq (just as the French and British did) and we are losing in Afghanistan (just as the Russians did) the facts are very simple to see--we spend Billions and go into recession, and we are no further to stopping either war. The insurgents or Taliban pop up--blow up a few people, hide away again and wait--we STAY and pour BILLIONS down the drain, scrambling and killing friends (like the Pakistanis) as well as a few enemies--but they keep coming.
We will lose this war, if we cannot get Afghanis and Iraqis to help us defeat them-and they won't. The Sci Fi books "Dune" by Frank Herbert were based on the mentality and mindset of warriors in the Middle east--it is from them that he modeled the idea of the Fremen. They fight wars in a century--and they don't fight to take over territory or get our products or their oil--they fight to survive and to just--never give up. It takes us over 100 thousand to keep our war going in both regions--it takes just 5 or 6 people diligently preaching retaliation and pointing at the dead and need for blood vendetta (against the Americans who came over and killed their loved ones) and it takes just one or two nut cases to strap on the bomb or plant the IED.
the net result is the caving of our economy, a continual blood drain and Billions gone--for them--it only cost what it was costing them whether they surrendered or fight--it cost their lives.
Guess they feel if they are going to die anyway--they may as well die fighting and take some of us with them--and since they are going to die...there are no rules and they will neither honor the rules we made up about 500 years ago ..or our insistence that they be shocked, awed or humbled by our technology.
think on this--When we killed Saddams sons, they bragged that over 200K tons of bombs were dropped to kill his 2 sons. That is a lot of money wasted to kill 2 people in bunkers--at that rate, we will indeed go bankrupt--and when they start killing us--it is with items that cost less than a lap top. The difference is--we took the fight to them--both in Afghanistan and Iraq--then somehow we think they should see us as heros and cooperate in "letting us win?"
Since wars are fought for new markets and new consumers as well as exploitation of resources--making their lands parking lots is not an option either. WE want them living, and wanting our cokes, and cell phones and lap tops and Walmarts, and McDonalds etc--but it is hard to get to that when they just want us GONE.
He stretches our military to protect himself instead of letting them do what needs to be done.
War is dirty and bloody and until barack gets it, more of our troops will face unneccessary harm.
The enemy will just go underground and then every now and then, Someone you never suspected, blows up a crowd and here we go again--you figure out what needs to be done--but never forget--you actually see this war with a real enemy--the main reason behind war is not to kill off the people in another country--it is to subdue them and make them consumers who will accept economic partnership in terms favorable to us. We need those Iraqis and Afghanis and Pakistanis et al ALIVE--so pray tell--HOW will we do "what needs to be done?" This is more a mental war--and is not winnable this way--just like Vietnam was not winnable this way.
Economics win over military might--every single time--especially when the advasary has no fear of dying and has no respect for either our presence or our purpose in their country.
Economics will definetely win everytime but there's a time and a place for everything.......cart before the horse kind of thing......