I heard that a couple years ago somewhere (“self-described” no less), but I’d like to cite for it in case it’s incorrect.
Anyone?
I don’t know. I’d be curious to know how that support fluctuated over the years, if at all.
Before that war started, there was a push by some liberals not to go into Afghanistan. MoveOn in particular was prominent in this effort.
It was pretty popular, the USA also had wide international support. However, the USA did not “invade” Afganistan. It came in deposed an unrecogized and illegal government during a time of civil war. No nation of any importance recognized the Taliban as the legal government of Afganistan.
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That doesn’t make it not an invasion. The Allies invaded France in 1944, even though the ruling entity was not legitimate and was not recognized as legitimate by anyone other than criminals and quislings.
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The Taliban was recognized as a government by both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, which are certainly countries of some importance. And whether ir not it was extended diplomatic recognition it WAS in control of most of the country, exerted civil control, and had to be removed by force of arms, e.g. an invasion.
I’d say this column represents the general liberal view on the invasion of Afghanistan and the war on terrorism. It’s a combination of “we hate terrorists” and “we think Bush is doing a bad job of fighting terrorists”.
Cite? All I can find on googling is reference to a moveon.org petition that the US “use restraint” when seeking justice for the attacks. Nothing about opposing our actual actions in Afganistan.
As to whether it was an technically an invasion or not, I’d say not. Not because the Taliban wasn’t officially recognized as the gov’t, but because the US mainly acted in support of the Northern Alliance overthrow of the Taliban rather then doing the ground fighting ourselves.
No cite, but I wouldn’t be surprised. There were vanishingly few people who opposed the initial invasion. I supported it (liberal living in NYC at the time of the 9/11 attacks). I still do. I just wished we had focused all of our efforts there on wiping out Bin Laden and helping the Afghanis reorganize their country, rather than giving up to go wander into Iraq.
The 85% figure doesn’t surprise me. It was an extremely repugnant and reviled regime, and the 9/11 attackes simply gave us the final stimulus to do it. I’ve always wondered why the world at large allowed the Taliban to run things as long as they did. Afghanistan under their rule sounded like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaids Tale, “now improved with extra poverty!”.
The AUMF that was passed in 2001 and that set up the invasion of Afghanistan passed unanimously in the Senate, and had only 1 “no” vote in the House. I’d say that’s a pretty good measure of how well it was supported. This contrasts with the AUMF to invade in Iraq (both times) and which had considerable opposition in both Houses, even though both resolutions did pass.
If you don’t know, then why did you answer? I’m looking for a number, not a stereotype.
I’ll second that request.
This is GQ, Mr. Moto, where factual answers to questions are sought. If you can offer a credible cite for that claim, you need to withdraw it.
Rats. “Unclear Wording” was supposed to be in my “Reason for editing,” not my title.
Unclear thinking.
MoveOn did not oppose the invasion of Afghanistan and I’m not aware of any other prominent liberals or liberal organizations who opposed it either. How about a cite for this. I’m aware that Karl Rove tried to spin a petition calling for “restraint in pursuit of justice” (which pre-dated 9/11) as opposing the action in Afghanistan (an inference which MoveOn promptly corrected) and while it wouldn’t surprise me if “Teh MoveOn was against going to Afghanistan!!111” has become a meme in the right wing media, it’s totally false.
Ad to the OP, I would not find figure surprising at all. If anything I think it sounds low. The national, lynch mob mentality immediately following 9/11 cut across all politcal spectrums. To voice public disapproval of going to Afghanistan at the time was to be seen as a nutcase and possibly as a terrorist.
Somewhere there must be an acutal opinon poll taken of support for the invasion broken down by political affiliation, but hell if I can find it. Anyone now a website that archives opinion polls? Must be one somewhere, but hell if I can find it.
Let me do Mr. Moto’s homework for him.
Following from articles re: Rove’s statement that “In the wake of 9/11, conservatives believed it was time to unleash the might and power of the United States military against the Taliban; in the wake of 9/11 liberals believed it was time to submit a petition,” I tracked down a purported copy of the original letter from MoveOn founder Wes Boyd via the MoveOn mailing list:
http://www.mail-archive.com/listening-l@zrz.tu-berlin.de/msg04246.html
This is the full text of the petition mentioned:
The archived petition is here.
I didn’t mean to kick this into debate territory, just that it is clear that there was some small minority of liberals that opposed the invasion of Afghanistan. This petition certainly does, and about 700,000 people signed it.
No, this petition does NOT oppose the invasion of Afghanistan, as MoveOn made clear in its response to the smear by Rove.
Your assertion was factually incorrect. Since this is GQ, the polite thing to do would be to retract and apologize, not to repeat the same false allegation all over again.
I didn’t see the word Afghanistan anywhere in that document. It is certainly suggestive of lack of support of the invasion, but it’s not conclusive. And an “on-line signature” is as valid as an on-line poll-- ie, it’s not.
As hard as it is for me to believe, I don’t think Rove was really that far off base. Again, from that MoveOn e-mail:
Not totally “Don’t Invade Afghanistan.” More like “Don’t kill innocent civilians in the process of hunting down Bin Laden.” But could easily be interpreted as anti-invasion.
It is simply more proof that not all liberals supported the Afghanistan invasion. But since we knew that already, not a really big deal.