President Donald Trump’s decision to launch airstrikes against Iran last Sunday triggered a range of reactions from the American public.
A CNN poll, conducted by SSRS from June 22-23 among a random national sample of 1,030 adults, indicated that 56% of those surveyed did not approve of the decision, while 44% approved. Fox News reported the results of a Quinnipiac University survey, conducted June 22-24, which showed 42% of voters polled supported the U.S. strikes against Iran while 51% opposed them.
In Traverse City on Wednesday, random interviews of pedestrians elicited a similar mix of views.
Evan Weber, a student visiting Traverse City from the University of Cincinnati, said the news of the airstrike “wasn’t totally shocking” to him.
Weber said he is concerned for civilians in Iran and troops that may be deployed as a result of the conflict, yet he believes that Trump and Vice President JD Vance made the right decision.
“As (the) leaders of our country, it is their responsibility to make sure that they keep our country safe, first and foremost,” he said. “And neutralizing the Iranians’ nuclear weapons puts America first.”
Another Traverse City pedestrian, Dave Ribick, holds a similar view on the attack. “If you paid attention,” Ribick said, the air strike was not a surprise.
“I think it was absolutely the right thing to do, and he showed courage like no other president has in the last 40 years,” he said.
As far as the future of conflict between Iran, Israel and the United States, he said he hopes it will be over soon, with Iran “coming to their senses.”
But he thinks that's unlikely. “At a minimum, we set them back – and that's the right thing to do,” Ribick said. “So the world is safer today as a result of that.”
Garrett Coan, a Traverse City resident, also agreed that the airstrike was not a shock for him.
“I think it's terrible,” Coan said. “And I don't think it should happen, but also I'm not surprised because I just think that that's par for the course with the current administration.”
Coan said that he is more concerned for the future of American diplomacy and trade relations than the threat of war.
“I think we're just shooting our cultural and historical image further down to the point where we're just losing respect from other nations and countries,” he said.
Jack Hanna, a Traverse City area resident, said he thinks the attack will backslide the nation from any political progress it has made in the past.
Hanna is a medical student in Kalamazoo, where his classmates are concerned that the attack could be a step toward a “World War III.”
“There's kind of a pervasive attitude of, I guess I would say, catastrophism amongst the people that I talk to regularly,” Hanna said. “So it's like, you know, what is going to go wrong next?”
Hanna said the ceasefire between Israel and Iran appears to be a settlement attempt by the “monied interests” involved in the conflict. “But there's a lot of animosity between the two parties that it just seems like that (animosity) is probably going to win out,” he said.
Two residents of the Traverse City area, who identified themselves as Kari and Allie, said they are “very worried” about a continuing conflict between the U.S. and Iran.
Kari said one of her biggest concerns is “our children being sent off to war.”
“I think that Trump is an absolute moron,” she said. “He says it's over. It's not over.”
Allie expressed a lack of faith in the current U.S. government. Her biggest fear, she said, is “an incompetent government leading an international conflict.”
