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A new CNN poll shows another large drop in public support for war in Afghanistan:
A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Tuesday morning indicates that 39 percent of Americans favor the war in Afghanistan, with 58 percent opposed to the mission.
Support is down from 53 percent in April, marking the lowest level since the start of the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan soon after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Especially notable–the hard core supporters are starting to flake:
"Most of the recent erosion in support has come from within the GOP," said Keating Holland, CNN’s polling director. "Unlike Democrats and independents, Republicans still favor the war, but their support has slipped eight points in just two weeks."
…"The Afghan war is almost as unpopular as the Iraq war has been for the past four years," Holland said, noting that support for the war in Iraq first dropped to 39 percent in June 2005 and has generally remained in the low to mid-30s since.
Danger ahead, Mr. President.
12 Comments
I’m wondering what has contributed to this drop.
It seems the media has been noting the rising death toll there; that could be one reason.
I also wonder if Obama mentioning the monetary costs in Iraq and Afghanistan in the context of what he wants to spend on health care has had some effect.
Could the drop in Republican support be attributed to the war now being seen as Obama’s?
Maybe. This and we’ve seen some Republican pundits go out against the war (George Will, for one).
Yeah, Obama is just pretending to want to continue on with the wars because he knows the GOP hates everything he wants to do. Then, when the GOP starts disapproving of the wars, he’ll be able to end them without fear of reprisals from the right. It’s some of his 10 dimensional chess to get Republican approval for ending the wars. As we know, he likes to have GOP authorization before he makes any moves.
I think you might have me confused with someone else. I’ve been after Obama to prosecute torturers from the start and to fire McChrystal before he was even confirmed.
The multidimensional chess is nothing I advocate.
Possibly a combination of all of these things. In my very scientific opinion, I think people are just fed up with war dragging on and on. The fire has gone out and the blood lust that ensued after 9/11 has long since expired.
The rigged Afghan Presidential elections have had the one salutary effect of reminding even conservatives that there is nothing to fight for or even particularly against in Afghanistan.
We entered Afghanistan with a clear policy goal but we have stayed on for years without one. We are now there and efforts seem bent on finding a policy to justify our remaining there. This is backwards. We define the policy and then determine whether that policy is best served by having a large aggressive military presence in the country or not. I doubt that a rationale can be found for our current high level of involvement. This is not an all or nothing. We do not need to go all in or withdraw completely. But whatever our involvement in Afghanistan it should be predicated on a clear and reasonable policy.
When will we capture bin Laden?
How do you win a war which after 8 years, longer than WW I and WW II combined as Rachel said recently… which still has no well defined mission or purpose.. and clearly never will? War which costs countless billions in a country whose entire GDP is less than one billion? When we don’t even have enough support among our populace (even in the height of post 9-11 fervor).. meaning so few are volunteering.. hence our government is spending vast sums on private militia and contractors.. against the will of its people?
In every sense of the word this is madness.
Obama is playing to lose in 2012. No one’s going to like him by then.
Much of the polling shows that the public is tired of this war because it’s dragged on so long.
Upwards of 80% of the same people say that they would support a new war if there were televised shots of a lot of buildings blowing up, especially if it was broadcast in that cool green-tinted night vision imagery.
Shock and Awe II! This time, it’s personal…
As much as I would like to say that you’re wrong…
However, I’ll take what I can get.