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Us Wars Essay

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Political Science 120A Midterm Study Questions 1. How does public opinion affect foreign policy? Is public opinion permissive or constraining? Does the U.S. public support the use of force? Under what conditions? -The public holds the president accountable because he needs approval ratings and support, especially during elections. Public can constrain freedom of action (if the public hates something, the president isn’t going to do it), and the public generally supports war when it is a security issue. It opposes casualties though, and in the case of the Vietnam War, the public urged the U.S. to back down. If the public does not like something: * permissive (could allow president to do something risky) - tends to rally …show more content…

straw man tactics - agree on a particular alternative, then surround it by two extreme ones → the “normal” issue is picked; ensures president doesn’t get all the options Missed opportunities to move forward. 4. What factors contributed to the U.S. intelligence failure over WMD in Iraq? If Saddam didn’t have WMD, why wasn’t he more cooperative with international inspections? (Check out the Fisher article) President Bush made many claims about Iraq possessing WMDs, and these claims were able to strike fear into the American public. Because the people relied on his information, even though it wasn’t credible, he was able to get enough popular support to send military forces into Iraq, without the full approval of Congress (check this fact?) he used an old resolution that allowed him to go to war. (Pollack article). Also, there was lack of information sharing between the CIA and FBI because competitors don’t like to share info. The CIA also contributed to intelligence failure because it distorted info and chose specific reports to support their decision and didn’t actually give congress the correct info. The UN also went in and made reports but gave unreliable info based on fabrications and outdated info. The administration tainted intelligence by cherry picking through the information that they wanted. They would intentionally choose channels that would give them the information they wanted, most notably the

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