A Washington Post survey last March asked people what concerned them about a possible U.S. involvement against ISIS in Iraq —  that we would go too far or that we wouldn’t go far enough.

Republicans responded 34 percent that we would go too far and 57 percent that we wouldn’t go far enough.  Democrats: 62 percent that we’d go too far, 25 percent that we wouldn’t go far enough.  Independents: 56 percent that we’d go too far, 28 percent that we wouldn’t go far enough. 

Many polls have asked whether the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were worth fighting.  In every one, Republicans say “yes, they were” by wide margins over the general population – like the CBS News poll last year that had Republicans 27 percent and non-Republicans 18 percent.

There’s a message in these numbers about Republicans.

Right:  the numbers say that Republicans are very different from other Americans in their attitudes toward war.  They are far more likely to favor military solutions.

We all remember March, 2003, when U.S. forces invaded Iraq.  Suddenly, streets were a forest of fluttering car flags.  America was at war!

Before the invasion, there were protests and vigils.  After the invasion, a storefront displayed a sign saying protesters should be ashamed.  Our troops, it said, were risking their lives to protect the protesters’ right to protest.  And soon ribbons appeared urging:  “Support the Troops.”

They missed the point:  the Iraq War was a bad war.  It had nothing to do with American freedoms.  Sure, I supported the poor clods who had to obey orders and do the fighting.  It was the war itself that was wrong. 

Vietnam was also a bad war.  Like Iraq, the basic rationale for the Vietnam War was untrue and even dishonest.

By contrast, there are good wars.  I watch American Heroes Channel more than any other (except baseball).  The Marines in the Pacific, the Army in Europe – the best of our young men dying to stop aggression.  WW2 needed to be fought. 

My wife and I read a lot about the Civil War and marvel how the hand of God acted to end slavery.  We’ve stood in long meditation on Little Round Top at Gettysburg and felt a deep emotion as we recreated what happened there – the courage and devotion of both the 20th Maine and the exhausted 15th Alabama.  The outcome that afternoon doomed the Confederacy. 

It’s easy to look backward and judge “good war, bad war.”  Wars yet to be fought are tough.

Senator Marco Rubio has said, “We need to begin to prepare people” for war with Iran. Yikes, he’s running for President!  Iranians are increasingly influenced by Western ideas.  The general population is a lot like us.

This series of columns has been critical of conservative Republican values – how they use the Bible to support pet positions, how they’re being led into unwise positions on guns by a self-serving NRA, and how they try to use the American flag to show themselves super-patriotic.

This column is less critical of the conservative Republican value regarding the military.  Yes, they glorify war, and they push us toward military involvement.  And yes, they mistakenly see themselves as more patriotic than others.

But we need them.  We need people who are disciplined, subordinate and, yes, warlike, for our national defense.  (But interestingly, while our military’s officer corps is lop-sidedly Republican, our total 1.4 million military personnel are not.  Both men and women are about 47 percent Independent.  Men are 28 percent Republican and 16 percent Democrat.  Women are 28 percent Democrat and 19 percent Republican.)  

And they provide one side in our national debates on war, an opinion we need.

For example, our involvement in Iraq against ISIS.  Good war or bad war? 

I’m open to the idea that such a war might be necessary.  I’m listening with one ear to Lindsey Graham.

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Lee Ballard lives in Mars Hill.