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Most Americans back strike on Syria, oppose preemptive strike on DPRK: poll

Xinhua, April 19, 2017 Adjust font size:

A majority of Americans support U.S. President Donald Trump's airstrike against the Syrian military, but U.S. public support for a similar strike on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is lukewarm, said a new poll.

According to data from the latest Harvard-Harris poll, 66 percent of respondents believe the U.S. military strike against the Syrian government early this month was justified, with only 34 percent saying that the military action was not justified.

Despite their approval of the airstrike, only a quarter of respondents support the idea that the United States should get more involved in trying to solve the Syrian crisis, with a staggering proportion of 75 percent arguing that just enforcement the chemical weapons ban is enough.

Meanwhile, 55 percent of respondents oppose airstrikes on the nuclear facilities of the DPRK.

Also, 56 percent of respondents believe strikes should not be done because they are too risky given the possibility of retaliation.

In a major departure from his campaign pledge, Trump on April 6 ordered targeted missile strikes on a Syrian military airfield and called the strikes in the nation's "vital interest."

Despite Syrian government's denial, the United States believed that Syrian planes based at the airbase had carried out chemical attacks early this month that killed over 70 people and wounded scores of others, most of whom civilians in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib.

After the strike, speculation ran amok that the Trump administration would launch a preemptive strike on the nuclear facility of the DPRK.

However, the Trump administration recently stressed that the United States was seeking to solve the Korean Peninsula issue peacefully.

"It's time for us to undertake all actions we can, short of a military option, to try to resolve this peacefully," said U.S. National Security Advisor Herbert Raymond McMaster on a TV show on Sunday.

On Monday, Susan Thornton, acting assistant secretary of state, said at a briefing that the United States preferred to resolve this issue "through the peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,", adding that the United States was not after conflicts or "regime change." Endit