RACE, GENDER, AND CLASS: ATTITUDES TOWARD THE WAR IN IRAQ AND PRESIDENT BUSH AMONG MILITARY PERSONNEL.

This study compares attitudes toward the war in Iraq and President Bush's handling of the war among service members by race, gender and class using data from the 2003 Military Times Poll, examining similarities and differences to trends found in civilian data. Overall, at the time of the poll, most service members reported that they believe that the U.S. should have gone to war in Iraq and approved of the President's handling of Iraq. However, initial analysis shows that Whites, men, officers, and Marines show the greatest support, following trends found in civilian polls addressing issues of race and gender. Advanced analysis shows that some of these findings continue while controlling for political ideology and other background characteristics. Specifically, being African American continues to be negatively associated with war support controlling for all other factors. The impacts of gender and class, as measured by rank, are reduced substantially when controlling for political ideology. These findings partially support the idea that minorities in society have less vested in the use of force in foreign policy and thus should report less support for such endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Race, Gender & Class is the property of Race, Gender & Class and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)