CHARLOTTTESVILLE, Va. – Despite sanctions and harsh rhetoric from the Obama Administration, when it comes to bombing Iran, most Americans say, ‘Take that option right off the table.’ According to a recent 60 Minutes-Vanity Fair poll, just one American in ten would support a U.S.-led attack, even if Iran tested a nuclear bomb or attacked Israel.
David Swanson is a Charlottesville resident and author who attended a meeting last month with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during his visit to the United Nations in New York. The meeting was with dozens of U.S. peace and civil rights groups, and Swanson says the Iranian leader expressed his desire for peace with the United States, which the American said is contrary to most media reports.
“I think he in particular is being demonized as part of a propaganda campaign for the possible launch of a war against his country, but there’s nothing he could possibly be doing that would justify a war or would be grounds not to talk to him about him about the possibility of peace.”
Concerns about Iran building a nuclear bomb have resulted in a series of sanctions against the country. While Swanson is opposed to any country possessing the weapon, he says the claims sound all too familiar.
“We don’t have any evidence that they have developed or are in the process of developing nuclear weapons; we only have evidence, which they openly admit to, that they’re developing nuclear power. Iraq did not develop any weapons, and we pretended it did, and attacked.”
The telephone poll suggests that most Americans seem to be weary of war: 25 percent of respondents would support war with Iran only if there were an attack on American soil, or on a U.S. fleet overseas.
The telephone poll results are at www.cbsnews.com This poll was conducted at the CBS News interviewing facility among a random sample of 906 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone September 6-8, 2010.
