U.S. soldiers load cargo onto CH-47 Chinooks on Aug. 27, 2023, at al Asad Air Base in Iraq. A recent Reagan Institute poll of Americans showed that 31% of respondents think the Middle East is where the U.S. military should be focused, up from 11% a year earlier. (Shane Hamann/U.S. Army National Guard)
Events in Israel appear to have revived American angst about security in the Middle East, which was rated as the most important destination for deploying U.S. forces abroad, according to a new survey.
Released Thursday, the Reagan Institute poll gauged public opinion on a wide range of security matters. It showed that 31% of those asked think the Middle East is where the American military should be focused, up from 11% a year earlier.
“Americans have shifted where they think the United States should focus its military forces, likely due to recent geopolitical events,” the institute said in a statement.
The war in Gaza, launched after an October terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas, has brought more U.S. military forces into the region amid concerns about a broader military escalation across the Middle East.
U.S. Army Capt. Lawton McGahey addresses his formation after a patching ceremony at al Asad Air Base in Iraq, on Sept. 3, 2023. The Middle East is where the American military should be primarily focused, according to 31% of respondents in a recent Reagan Institute poll. (Daphney Black/U.S. Army)
In recent weeks, U.S. troops have come under repeated fire from Iranian proxies in Syria and Iraq and at sea.
East Asia was rated as the second-highest priority in 2023, with 23% saying it should be the top area of focus for U.S. forces.
That number was down from 31% and 37% in the previous two years. Home to China, the Pentagon’s so-called top “pacing threat,” East Asia had been the top security priority for Americans since 2020.
In general, global events tend to drive how Americans prioritize security challenges and the military’s role in dealing with them.
But while priorities change, one consistent finding over five years of polling is that a majority of Americans believe that the U.S. should maintain a global military presence, the Reagan Institute said. In 2023, 66% of those polled favored a worldwide presence.
“Americans want our military to have bases abroad to deter attacks and respond swiftly to emerging threats, contrasting with only 28% who advocate for a reduction in overseas military presence, favoring troop deployment only in response to aggression,” the poll said.
Still, the military’s global role and the vast number of overseas bases it maintains remain points of contention. Over the years, the outlook on having large bases in places like Germany has shifted, depending on the politics at any given time.
Before Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine, it was commonplace for both Republicans and Democrats to call for large-scale troop reductions and base closures in Europe. Americans, too, put Europe close to the bottom of the priority list.
In 2021, only 5% of those polled by the Reagan Institute named Europe when asked to select only one region where troops could be deployed.
But those numbers spiked in the aftermath of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Last year, 18% said Europe was their number one military priority, and in 2023 that number increased to 19%.
When given the choice to divvy up where troops are sent, there was less disparity among regions, with 19% allocated to the Middle East, 18% to East Asia and 17% to Europe.
Meanwhile, 13% were allocated to South Asia, 13% to Central America and 10% to South America.
Joining South America at the bottom was Africa, which also was allocated 10%. On the question of selecting only one place for U.S. forces, just 2% picked Africa.
While low on the priority list for Americans, missions in Africa are among the most dangerous for U.S. forces, given that troops have been killed in recent years on counterterrorism missions stretching from Niger to Somalia and Kenya.
The Reagan Institute survey was conducted from Oct. 27 to Nov. 5 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
