Afghanistan And Public Opinion

By John Brissenden

Grand claims are made for public opinion by the media, by politicians and by policymakers. The day after the worldwide Iraq protests in 2003, The New York Times declared that “there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion.”
The Ministry of Defence makes the link between warfare and popular consent quite explicit in its definitive policy document on Strategic Communication, published last year:
“War...requires the political and majority support of the population in whose name it is waged. The authority to use the military instrument is nuanced and can occur without prior approval by Parliament. However, for major operations such approval is expected by the wider UK population and it is important to maintain public support.”
In fact, as we shall see, the authority to use the military instrument can only be exerted without prior approval by Parliament. The constitution provides no mechanism by which Parliamentary approval may be given at the point at which decisions to deploy military forces are taken. More