A new poll shows that the majority of millennials are in favor of sending ground troops to fight ISIS but that same poll also shows that millennials don’t give a shit about doing any of the heavy lifting themselves.
The new poll from the Harvard Institute of Politics has found that 60% of Americans aged 18-to-29 support sending U.S. ground troops to fight ISIS in Syria, which would be fine and dandy if that same age group was willing to do shoulder some of the load and do some fighting themselves. Conversely though, NPR reports that 62% of Americans aged 18-to-29 say ‘they wouldn’t want to personally join the fight, even if the U.S. needed additional troops.’
The poll itself actually covered a wide array of political topics that are hot right now, from who millennials support as a candidate (Trump and Sanders) to whether or not millennial republicans think we should build a wall between the United States and Mexico (70% of Republicans support it, 31% of Democrats).
The disconnect in joining the fight comes down to how millennials feel about the government writ large, according to Harvard IOP Polling Director John Della Volpe.
“I’m reminded of the significant degree of distrust that this generation has about all things related to government,” said Della Volpe. “And I believe if young people had a better relationship with government … they’d be more open to serving.”
Della Volpe does caution, though, that this poll doesn’t dig into the size or the scope of the military campaign that young folks would be willing to theoretically support.
“I can’t tell you that young people support 5,000 troops or 50,000 troops,” he said.
One thing that’s been an interesting topic of discussion lately is whether or not the push for completely gender equality will eventually lead to women being subjected to The Draft. With the U.S. Military opening up every position of active combat duty to women it’s raised the question of whether or not that’ll lead to gender equality within the draft. So I’d be curious to see specifically what % of millennial females would be willing to fight against ISIS if called upon by her country.
For more on this poll you can follow that link above to NPR or click here to go directly to the Harvard Institute of Politics poll.