When Americans Understand the Real Meaning of “NATO No-Fly Zone,” Support Plummets to 23%

A recent Yahoo News/You Gov poll showed what Americans think about a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine when they understand what that action would entail.

Before realizing a no-fly zone meant shooting down Russian military planes, possibly triggering a USA-Russia war, the poll showed 40% support.

Afterward, support for a NATO no-fly zone nosedived to 23%.

Now, I have a variety of feelings about those findings.

• Annoyed a significant portion of Americans didn’t know what a NATO no-fly zone really meant
• Pleased that many people changed their minds when informed of what would happen
• Disgusted 23% of the poll participants were warmongers

Other recent polls suggested significant numbers supporting the measure, and mainstream media clamored for the action that could spark WWIII.

However, opposition to a no-fly zone drastically increased when respondents learned it would likely mean war with Russia.

The new poll includes a split form test of ‘no fly zone’ — support plummets when respondents told NFZ means “the U.S. military would shoot down Russian military planes flying over Ukraine, possibly triggering a war between the U.S. and Russia” https://t.co/8rK3mgcuci pic.twitter.com/2lbjxE6O75

— Mark Blumenthal (@MysteryPollster) March 15, 2022

Summit News reported:

Among Republicans support for a no-fly zone shifted from a 22-point margin IN FAVOUR (48% to 26%), to a 38-point margin AGAINST it (55% to 17%).”

A separate poll conducted by Quinnipiac found that while three quarters of Americans want the U.S. to supply aid to Ukraine, 54 percent agree with NATO’s continued refusal to enforce a no-fly zone, while just 32% want the measure instituted.

Interestingly, the poll found that more Democrats are against the no-fly zone, than Republicans, with 58 percent of Dems against the no-fly zone, compared to 47 percent of Republicans.

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Worryingly, Democrats like AOC sound more reasonable than some establishment GOP figures on the matter.

https://twitter.com/MariamJalloul_/status/1504298636963889153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1504298636963889153%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsummit.news%2F2022%2F03%2F18%2Fpoll-when-americans-are-informed-of-what-a-nato-no-fly-zone-really-means-support-drops-to-just-23%2F

Yahoo News noted other poll figures:

The percentage of respondents who now say Biden is doing “a better job leading his country” than Putin, for instance, climbed 7 points (from 33% to 40%), while the percentage who say Putin is doing a better job leading than Biden fell by roughly the same amount (from 19% to 10%) — a net swing of 16 points in Biden’s direction. This reflected both an increase in Democrats choosing Biden (from 68% to 80%) and a decrease in Republicans choosing Putin (from 36% to 19%), with a corresponding rise in Republicans choosing “neither” (from 46% to 63%).

Independents, meanwhile, went from evenly divided (22% Putin vs. 21% Biden) to picking the U.S. president as the better leader by a 3-1 margin (33% Biden vs. 10% Putin).

Overall, more Americans now believe that Biden’s response to Russia has either been “about right” (31%) or “too tough” (6%) than believe it has “not [been] tough enough” (34%), with the share saying the latter falling by 5 points over the last two weeks. That decline was similar among Republicans (down 6 points, from 58% to 52%), independents (down 6 points, from 44% to 38%) and Democrats (down 4 points, from 25% to 21%).