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On Iran, More Americans Want Sanctions than Talks

By Michael Goldfarb
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The polling data:

A poll by The Israel Project of 800 registered voters, jointly conducted by Republican Public Opinion Strategies and Democratic Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, found that 81 percent of those surveyed believe Iran poses a “very” or “somewhat” serious threat to the United States, and 84 percent agreed with the statement: “Even with all the problems that America faces at home now, we must still work hard to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.” The poll showed that 76 percent support the initiation of “direct talks between the U.S. and Iran to negotiate its nuclear program,” when given “a series of actions that can be taken with regard to Iran if they do not stop their nuclear program.” Eighty-one percent backed expansion of U.N. economic and diplomatic sanctions, 69 percent wanted an end to “all taxpayer funded government contracts with companies that do business with Iran” and 66 percent of respondents said they want to “prevent any company from doing business in the United States if that company provides Iran with refined petroleum.”

The same people who wanted Obama to help the Iranian protesters by saying and doing nothing (that strategy worked out great, by the way) will tout the 76 percent figure in this poll as evidence of widespread support for their approach of direct talks. Fine, but ask that same 76 percent what they think will be accomplished with direct talks and I’d bet at least half have little to no hope that such talks will be successful. Which might be why even more respondents support new sanctions from the UN, and two-thirds support more robust US sanctions of the kind that Lieberman has pushed through the Senate. Nobody opposes talking, but we can’t be delusional about the prospects for success. The Iranians have already stalled Obama for nine months while they murdered democracy activists in the street, continued enriching uranium, and offered the Obama administration no concessions at all — not even an offer for talks at some undetermined point in the future. Eighty-one percent of Americans understand it’s time to increase the pressure on Tehran.

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