Poll In Iran Shows A Many Favor Democracy

Poll In Iran Shows A Many Favor Democracy

www.cnn.com

Terror Free Tomorrow found 80 percent of Iranians support full inspections and a guarantee not to develop nuclear weapons in return for aid from other countries.

Slightly more than half, however, said they still favor the development of nuclear weapons and think the country would be safer with them. Developing the weapons is considered a "very important" priority for just 29 percent of those polled.

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[edit on 16-7-2007 by UM_Gazz]

I know this poll was done by an American company. I know polls are by no means always a scientific sampling of the general populas. I just however do think the information presented is good to note. Please feel free to state any of your opinions to the issues.

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I always love the way in which polls are presented. There is some spin there..

50+% support the idea of nuclear weapons.. Ok..

another 29% think they are "very important"...

The way they are presented makes the reader think a minority support it, but on the other hand, 79%+ support having Nuclear weapons....

Depends on how you read these things, i suppose.

One thing that bothers me though, in a country which has a big divide between it's Urban and Rural population, how can they be sure of an "error rate of 3%+/-" when the rural poor might not have ready access to a telephone anyway. They could have rung 1000 people in Tehran, who would be a different kettle of fish to people in, say, Mashhad.

This doesn't make much sense at all. How can 80% "support full inspections and a guarantee not to develop nuclear weapons" while 50% "favor the development of nuclear weapons" and 29% think "Developing the weapons is considered a 'very important' priority"?

Even if the 29% is a subset of the 50% it still doesn't make sense at all.

Some of the questions were presented differently. For instance if they were to give up the nuke weapons in exchange for out side aid. It did show they favor the economy more. Again just a point to note.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
This doesn't make much sense at all. How can 80% "support full inspections and a guarantee not to develop nuclear weapons" while 50% "favor the development of nuclear weapons" and 29% think "Developing the weapons is considered a 'very important' priority"?

Even if the 29% is a subset of the 50% it still doesn't make sense at all.

Exactly! I was thrown by those numbers also... How can 80% percent support no nuclear weapons, and 50 percent support it? It doesn't add up at all.

I opened this thread in another forum not seeing this one opened last night. Here is some of my input so far.

this poll was only taken from 1000 people in a country with 65+ million people. Though it was taken across all 30 Iran provinces, it was limited to polling by telephone. This poll was taken by phone because the risk of imprisonment in face-to-face interviews is all to real. The last time a similar poll was taken in 2002, the interviewer was imprisoned. Polling by phone can reach a good cross section of people in Iran. Iran has millions of cell phone usersalone, making me have a feeling house phones are pretty common as well. The phone allows people to freely give their opinions without face-to-face persecution as well, but it leaves the interviewer with grey areas about who the interviewee really is. Easier to distinguish a man versus a woman in the phone interview process, but difficult to actually verify age, wealth, religious beliefs, etc. This poll used male versus female as a statiscal measurement.

I think this represents a very small part of a very large country. It does let us know that there are those out there who want to see change in Iran. I believe the Iranians need to use their voice to speak to the leaders and make them realize that if they do not listen to the voice of the people, they may need to be replaced. Iranians know that they are in a very serious position right now with many countries paying close attention to their moves.

The people of Iran polled also support the funding of groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, actually 2 out of 3 polled are in favor of this. Not a good place to be putting theor government money in my opinion.

Over half (53%) of Iranians polled "support recognizing Israel and Palestine as independent states in exchange for normal relations with the United States"

On a final note, I want you to pay close attention to who is behind this poll. "Terror Free Tomorrow, which has prominent Democrats and Republicans on its advisory board" which is made up of "Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and the co-chairs of the 9-11 commission, Lee Hamilton, a Democrat, and Tom Kean, a Republican." There could be something a bit more behind this poll and its press release. Why release this poll information now on CNN?

John McCain is not afraid to drop the bomb in Iran should changes not come from within its own borders. It wasn't long ago that McCain joked of such a situation Here

"Another man — wondering if an attack on Iran is in the works — wanted to know when America is going to “send an air mail message to Tehran.”
McCain began his answer by changing the words to a popular Beach Boys song.
“Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,” he sang to the tune of Barbara Ann."

All 3 do push sanctions and discussion with Iran very hard, but I think all could make a tough decision if asked too.

Infinite
lots of good information.
Thanks a bunch for posting it
Especially about who is behind it.

Originally posted by Reform America

Originally posted by djohnsto77
This doesn't make much sense at all. How can 80% "support full inspections and a guarantee not to develop nuclear weapons" while 50% "favor the development of nuclear weapons" and 29% think "Developing the weapons is considered a 'very important' priority"?

Even if the 29% is a subset of the 50% it still doesn't make sense at all.

Exactly! I was thrown by those numbers also... How can 80% percent support no nuclear weapons, and 50 percent support it? It doesn't add up at all.

Actually it does make sense. The Iranians who were polled, 50%+ do believe that nuclear weapons should be built while only 29% consider it very important. Now having said that. the 80% of Iranians polled would be willing to forfit the building of these nuclear weapons "in return for aid from other countries." That is the important part you guys are leaving out. Those polled would agree to full inspections and agree not to build nuclear weapons in exchange for aid. It's not that they don't want to build nuclear weapons because they would feel safer having them, but they would prefer to be taken care of and funded by other countries.

I hope that makes a little more sense explaining it that way. Let me know.