Vast Majority of Americans Doubt Afghan War Will Ever End

Comments from Administration Support General Consensus

by Jason Ditz, October 06, 2009

Showing an increasing resignation to America’s state of perpetual war, a poll conducted by Clarus Research Group shows that a vast majority of Americans, 68 percent, say the US will never win or lose the Afghan War, but it will merely continue unresolved.

The general consensus seems to be in keeping with comments from the Obama Administration, which has repeatedly ruled out settling on any sort of exit strategy. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates only yesterday declared that any withdrawal would give the appearance that the mujahideen had defeated a second superpower after a decade-long occupation.

Even officials within the White House have insisted that President Obama is being awfully vague about what he hopes to accomplish eight years into the war, the only thing Obama insists he’s not trying to accomplish is leaving.

Multiple polls have shown Americans firmly against the continuation of the conflict, and one would think this would portend an eventual end. Yet years of even larger opposition failed to end the war in Iraq, and today’s poll suggests Americans are now largely of the opinion that nothing they say can end a war their government is determined to continue.