Poll finds majority of US voters oppose military action in Iran

(CN) — Over a week after the U.S. and Israel first launched military strikes against Iran, a new Quinnipiac University poll released Monday finds a majority of U.S. voters oppose the military action.

Out of 1,002 registered voters surveyed from March 6-8, 53% opposed the military action against Iran, while 40% supported it. Responses were divided along party lines, with 89% of Democrats and 60% of independents opposing the strikes, compared to just 11% of Republicans.

An even larger majority of voters, 74%, said they would oppose sending U.S. ground troops into Iran. Forty-seven percent of respondents said they felt the strikes make America less safe, while 34% said they make the U.S. safer. Seventy-seven percent of voters thought it’s somewhat or very likely there will be a terrorist attack on U.S. soil in response to the strikes.

Meanwhile, 55% said they did not think Iran posed an imminent military threat to the U.S. before the current action. Seventy-four percent of voters said they were either somewhat or very concerned the U.S. military action against Iran will cause oil and gas prices to increase.

“Voters know the score: pain at the pump is inevitable,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a statement. “When about 20 percent of the world’s oil flows through a region torn apart by conflict, it will eventually hit home at the local filling station.”

Despite a majority disapproving of the strikes against Iran, 48% of respondents thought the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and more than 40 other Iranian leaders in the strikes was justified, while 43% thought the killings weren’t justified.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents disapproved of President Donald Trump’s handling of the situation with Iran. Fifty-nine percent said he should have received approval from Congress before taking military action, and 62% thought the Trump administration has not provided a clear explanation of the reasons for the strikes.

However, the recent strikes do not appear to have altered Trump’s overall approval rating. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said they approve of Trump’s handling of his job as president, while 57% disapproved. This is essentially unchanged from what Quinnipiac University found in a Feb. 4 poll.

In a statement late Monday, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said Iran is being “completely crushed under the weight of the United States military.”

““President Trump is courageously protecting the United States from the deadly threat posed by the rogue Iranian regime — and that is as America First as it gets,” Kelly said. “The entire administration is working together to end Iran’s ability to possess a nuclear weapon, use or develop ballistic missiles, arm proxies or use its now-defeated navy.”

But many respondents did not see a quick end to the conflict. When asked how long they think the military action against Iran will last, 3% said they think it will last for days, 18% thought weeks, 32% thought months, 13% thought about a year, and 26% thought it will last for longer than that.

“How long will it last? Not days, not weeks, but months, maybe longer. Perhaps compelled by memories of long wars, Americans see no early end to the enormous upheaval in the Middle East,” Malloy said.