A greater number of Americans believe the United States does not have any responsibility to help the Iraqi government battle Islamic extremists, a new poll shows.
The
Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Annenberg survey found that 49 percent say America should not get involved in the fighting, even though the United States went into Iraq 11 years ago and removed the country's dictator Saddam Hussein, eventually leading to the current crisis.
The Wall Street Journal noted that Americans are prepared to put the so-called "Pottery Barn" rule behind them when it comes to the war-torn nation, referring to the "you-break-it, you-own-it" rule — which was not an actual policy of Pottery Barn.
The study showed that 44 percent of Americans think the United States does have a responsibility to fix the broken country, which is in danger of being overrun by fighters from ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), an al-Qaida offshoot.
However, the poll showed that seven out of 10 Americans, 71 percent, felt the conflict in Iraq was not worth the trouble, which was 12 points higher than a survey in December 2012, a year after President Barack Obama announced that all American troops had been pulled out of Iraq.
The results of the survey come nearly a week after Obama announced he is sending
300 military advisers to Baghdad to help the embattled Iraqi government.
The poll of 1,383 people was conducted from June 16-22 and has a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.
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