A majority of Americans now favor sending U.S. ground troops back into Iraq if needed to fight the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS), according to a
Fox News poll.
President Barack Obama has repeatedly pledged that no American ground troops will be sent to Iraq. Currently advisers are assisting on the ground in Iraq as American airstrikes are carried out there and in Syria where ISIS controls large areas.
The new poll shows Americans favor sending ground troops by a 52-42 percent margin.
And they believe those troops will indeed be needed. According to the poll, 57 percent think airstrikes alone will not defeat ISIS.
Though the White House has been reluctant to call the action against ISIS a war, the poll showed that Americans do believe that's what it is. Sixty-two percent say the United States is at war with the ISIS terrorists, but only 26 percent believe there is a clear strategy for winning.
Republicans have criticized Obama for letting the enemy know he has no intention to use ground troops. The poll showed the public agrees, with 54 percent calling it "crazy" to telegraph our intentions.
Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer told Fox News Channel's
"The Kelly File" he is skeptical only of the numbers claiming most people now support ground troops.
"That is a very ephemeral number," Krauthammer said. "That is a number that you get before anybody has been committed into combat on the ground. That is a number you get when America has not as of yet sustained so much as a sprained ankle in this campaign."
He predicted the number would turn around rapidly if ground troops are committed and casualties begin to mount. Part of the reason, he said, is that people don't believe Obama is willing to carry through the policy.
The poll talked to 1,049 registered voters nationwide by phone from September 28-30. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.
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