42% of Americans don't know we are still at war in Afghanistan

I'm often guilty of thinking that the enemy of an anti-war movement is being pro-war. I now believe the bigger enemy of peace is willful ignorance and selfish indifference.

Rasmussen Reports released the results of a new survey Monday that found 42% of respondents either incorrectly said we are not still at war in Afghanistan or said they were not sure.

Overall, 58% of respondents said we are still at war in Afghanistan. However, 21% said they thought the Afghanistan war was not still going on, and an equal amount said they were not sure.

This poll is not an outlier. Four years ago YouGov did a poll to see how many Americans knew which countries we were bombing. Can you guess how many knew?
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What makes it even more sad is that most Americans support bombing countries (like Syria, Somalia, and Yemen) without knowing that we were already bombing those countries.

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Part of this can be blamed on an inexcusable level of ignorance.

Just 74%of respondents knew that the Earth revolved around the Sun, according to the results released at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.

Fewer than half (48%) knew that human beings evolved from earlier species of animals.

But another even more important factor is a deep level of moral apathy in America.

“Forty-six percent of Americans surveyed think that captured enemy combatants may be tortured to obtained important military information, and thirty-three percent think torture is part of war,” according to the ICRC poll, said Heritage fellow Cully Stimson in a statement Monday. “These are disturbing numbers because torture is a crime, and banned under domestic and international law.”

"No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it."
- Carl von Clausewitz

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Raggedy Ann's picture

They can continue to reap the riches of war while Herr Drumpf fiddles and America burns. History repeats! Nothing screams the propaganda is working more than 42% of Americans think we are out of Afghanistan. We are losing. Revolution is the only answer.
Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

@Raggedy Ann
It was legitimized when the MSM and both major Parties started referring to it as "harsh interrogation", leading Americans to think of a prisoner on a wooden chair and a bare light bulb and a cop shouting questions rather than the Spanish Inquisition where these tortures actually came from.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Out of the news out of mind.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

that the Heritage Foundation's unremitting war on American citizens' capacity for empathy has born its predictable fruit?

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Bollox Ref's picture

(burp).

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Wink's picture

M$M.
The Vietnam war was reported nightly on the Big Three Networks 6:30 News - mostly becuz 10-12 American GI Joes were killed every day, nearly 400 killed every month.
Afghanistan?? crickets. mostly becuz no news is no news. Nothing to see, move along.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

snoopydawg's picture

who think that Obama ended the war in Afghanistan. Oh yeah and the Iraq war too. And that he didn't start any new ones.

Nothing screams the propaganda is working more than 42% of Americans think we are out of Afghanistan.

Except for the number of people who are okay with the wars in the countries listed. For what gawd-damned reasons do people think that it's okay that this country is waging war across the globe when not one of those countries is a threat to ours? Guess none of them have heard about the Nuremberg laws or international law. But if any country decided to get revenge on us because of what we've done to others they would be outraged. It's not just our government that thinks Americans are exceptional! I'm thoroughly disgusted by this poll.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

divineorder's picture

@snoopydawg

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@snoopydawg
And the Saudi government financed 9-11, but for some strange reason (/snark) we didn't attack them.

Oh, almost forgot that the Pakistan IBI also harbored OBL. In that case, I understand not going to war; Pakistan has nukes.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

"and thirty-three percent think torture is part of war"

In this and in all cases, the people's grasp of things is disabled by Corporate Pravda controlling narrative. If only there was something we could do about their grip.

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

travelerxxx's picture

@jim p

"Corporate Pravda"

Exactly what the vast majority of the American-controlled press is: Corporate Pravda

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