by Mark Silva
There may be a new bad war in town.
Americans appear to be losing patience with an intractable war in Afghanistan now that they are growing somewhat more comfortable with a situation in Iraq that suddenly has an end in sight.
Forty-two percent of those surveyed now say the United States made a mistake in deploying troops in Afghanistan, an incursion which drew little criticism as a natural reaction to the terrorist assaults of Sept. 11.
But after nearly eight years and with more than 30,000 troops committed to Afghanistan - with the Obama administration committing another 17,000 troops this Spring -- doubts are rising. Just 30 percent of those surveyed a year ago voiced such misgivings about the war in Afghanistan. Just 38 percent of Americans surveyed say things are going well for the U.S. in Afghanistan.
These are among the findings of a Gallup Poll on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan conducted with USA Today released today.
The March 14-15 survey was conducted just before the sixth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, where the Obama administration is on a path toward removal of all combat troops.
"The new low in assessments of U.S. progress in Afghanistan compares favorably to the low point for the Iraq war from January 2007, when only 28 percent thought things were going well for the United States in Iraq,'' Gallup notes in its report today. "But perceptions have shifted rather dramatically since then, and now 51 percent of Americans give a positive assessment of the Iraq war...
"That increasingly optimistic view about Iraq extends to Americans' perceptions of the United States' chances for ultimate success in that war,'' Gallup's Jeffrey Jones writes. "Sixty-four percent now believe the United States can win the war, and 42 percent believe it will do so. Both are the best assessments Gallup has measured since June 2006....
"It is important to point out that even as American support for the Afghanistan war is declining, and even as Americans perceive greater progress in Iraq than in Afghanistan, public support for the war in Afghanistan is still higher than for the Iraq war.''
Post a comment
(Anonymous comments will not be posted. Comments aren't posted immediately. They're screened for relevance to the topic, obscenity, spam and over-the-top personal attacks. We can't always get them up as soon as we'd like so please be patient. Thanks for visiting The Swamp.)