A July 2024 Opinion poll showed that a majority of the American public does not support sending U.S. troops to defend Taiwan or Ukraine, an opinion that is consistent with the findings of other Current surveys on these heated issues, suggesting that Americans appear to be warming to the idea of ​​restraint and non-interference in international affairs.

In fact, another Opinion pollconducted in February by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that a majority of Americans (56%) do not believe the United States should take sides in Israel’s war against Gaza. And a Current survey A poll conducted by the council this month found that only four in 10 support sending troops to defend Israel in the event of an attack by its neighbors.

Likewise, Americans’ suspicions of foreign intervention were expressed in a recent YouGov surveywhich found that 79% said they would support intervention only if the United States was directly threatened (this figure dropped significantly to 49% if an ally was attacked). In the same study, the only recent war that a majority of Americans believed was justified was was the Second World War.

Despite these findings, Washington continues to push ahead with its efforts to foment wars around the world, whether through hesitant efforts to reach peace in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, by fueling the conflict with China, or by needlessly spending huge sums of money on the Pentagon and thus on the arms industry.

“The general thread of (our) polling data is that there is a disconnect between official U.S. foreign policy and the preferred policies of the American people,” said Tucker Kass, spokesman for Defense Priorities, which conducted the poll in July. “The policies coming out of Washington are interventionist, but the American people, at least based on the responses we received, support a more reasonable, more insightful policy that would be, frankly, wiser than current policies.”

The defense priorities survey also found that only 22 percent of respondents supported the U.S. defense of Ukraine. 46 percent opposed it, while 32 percent remained neutral. Thirty percent said they supported America’s military defense of Taiwan against China, while 37 percent opposed it and 33 percent remained neutral. In addition, a majority of Americans surveyed, 44 percent, agreed that avoiding war with China was more important than Taiwan’s autonomy.

Meanwhile, Americans’ willingness to support U.S. military aid to Ukraine has been steadily declining. A 2022 Chicago Council poll found that 79% of Americans supported sending military aid to Kyiv, but in the Council’s September 2023 poll, that number dropped to 63%. Opinion pollThe Defense Priorities poll conducted in July found that only 20% of Americans supported continued unconditional support for Ukraine.

Other polls found that Americans refuse the United States is defending Taiwan militarily against a Chinese attack. In addition to the “Defense Priorities” indicator, a survey from November 2023 by the Chicago Council found that only 39% would support the defense of Taiwan, compared to 43% in 2024.

American support for military defense of Israel is also declining. According to the Chicago Council on Global AffairsSupport for the use of US troops to defend Israel was just over 50 percent between 2015 and 2021, but fell to 41 percent in 2024.

The American public appears to be generally questioning US military interference in world affairs. Support for US military bases in Germany, Turkey, Poland, the Baltic partners, Japan, South Korea and Australia declined across the board from 2022 to 2023.

Despite these obvious trends, there are some caveats. As the July Defense Priorities Survey shows, Americans do not tend to follow U.S. foreign policy closely, resulting in a large proportion of neutral or “don’t know” responses to related survey questions. Polls can also vary widely. For example, some have shown support for America in defending Taiwan, including a Opinion poll from the Global Taiwan Institute, which showed an approval rating of 61% as recently as 2022.

In addition, the public can be influenced by events and/or strong media coverage. After the September 11 attacks, for example, the media helped normalize the idea of ​​removing Saddam Hussein. In January 2002 73% of the American public supported the use of force in Iraq and believed what the Bush administration said about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in the country. After years of political failures and in hindsight, only 32% of Americans believed the Iraq war was the right thing to do, according to a Survey 2024.

Today, Americans can see alternative opinions on social media and outside the mainstream, potentially leading to more skepticism of official views in Washington. “Presidents and other interventionists often win short-term public support for military adventurism by moralizing and spreading panic,” Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, told RS. “However, as the impact of these tactics wears off — and Americans come home in body bags — public enthusiasm usually wanes. Hence, eventually, widespread revulsion at the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere emerges.”