Public Policy Polling asked primary voters all over the country an important foreign policy question leading up to the 2016 elections: Do you support or oppose the bombing of Agrabah?
Apparently 30% of Republicans said they would support the bombing of Agrabah, while 19% of Democrats said they were also in favor. Most respondents were unsure, probably because they had no flipping clue where or what Agrabah was. But if we had asked those same people about bombing Al-Raqqa, Syria? They probably would have answered the same. Because that’s likely what they thought they had been asked.
But as it turns out, Agrabah is the fictional land in which Disney’s Aladdin takes place. It doesn’t actually exist. So why would such a large number of Republicans and Democrats favor bombing it? Perhaps they were truly disturbed by the income inequality of Agrabah, and wanted to bomb it in order to pressure the sultan to redistribute some of his wealth? Or maybe they would stop at nothing to kill that Godfrey-awful annoying parrot. (I see what you did there.)
And what’s even more worrisome is for whom the “bomb Agrabah” folks want to vote. You guessed it: Trump.
According to the PPP, “[Donald] Trump is at 45% with Republicans who want to bomb Aladdin and only 22% with ones who don’t want to bomb Aladdin.”
No, but seriously, people on both sides of the aisle are so very ignorant. Of Disney classics. Of foreign politics:
“Agrabah? Sounds Muslim. Bomb it? Yeah. Certainly. Turn the Middle East into a parking lot. See how many terrorists there are then. That’ll show ’em.”
No one seems to care that bombing countries often kills innocent civilians and destroys their property. It doesn’t matter where it is. The knee jerk response from Republicans and Democrats should be easy when it comes to bombing: no. We should be striving to avoid war. We’re not. That should worry you greatly about the future. World War III? Here we come. With open arms.