Plunge in Hudson war support

Wednesday, March 21, 2007
By GREG HANLON
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Support for the American war in Iraq among Hudson County residents has dropped dramatically since the war began, four years ago this week, according to a recent Jersey Journal/ New Jersey City University Poll.

The poll shows that only 14.7 per cent of Hudson County respondents now approve of the war, a striking dropoff from 57.9 per cent who supported the war in March 2003.

"Clearly, patience with the war in Iraq is running out in the county," remarked the poll's authors, NJCU political science professor Fran Moran and English professor Bruce Chadwick.

While the county overwhelmingly doesn't approve of the war, the poll shows that many Hudson County residents are either related to or know somebody serving in Iraq. Four out of 10 residents said they personally know somebody serving in Iraq; 17.7 percent said they have a relative there.

In fact, according to the poll, disapproval of the war is strongest among those who have this personal connection to people in the military; 70.7 percent of those who have relatives serving and 74.5 per cent of those who know someone in the military expressed disapproval with how the war is being handled.

The poll reports that the direct, personal connection to the soldiers was highest among blacks and Hispanics and lowest among whites, numbers that are consistent with the Army's own demographics that show a higher proportional registration among non-whites.

The drop-off of support for the war from the 2003 poll to this year's can be explained, in part, by the fact that the conflict has dragged on far longer than most people expected. When polled in 2003, 78.1 per cent of respondents who supported the war said that their support would weaken if the war lasted for more than a year.

More than half of Hudson County residents support an immediate withdrawal of the troops, with an additional 16 percent saying that America should leave within a year. Only 15.5 percent favor a more open-ended commitment of staying as long as it takes to win.

Immediate withdrawal is especially favored among minority residents - 62.9 percent of blacks and 73.5 percent of Hispanics surveyed wanted troops out now, "no doubt due in part to the fact that a higher percentage of blacks and Hispanic respondents reported having family members or knowing someone serving in Iraq," Moran and Chadwick wrote.