Poll Shows Growing Opposition to Afghan War

Nine Years in, Americans Sick of War

Just weeks after a USA Today/Gallup poll showed support for the Afghan War was plummeting, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows the trend continuing, with 58 percent of Americans now firmly opposed to the war, the worst such toll in the well publicized poll since the 2001 US invasion.

The poll also showed that less than 1 in 5 Americans, only 19%, expect the war to get any better in the next year. When President Obama announced the escalation in December, 31% of Americans expected progress.

All of the questioned showed a trend toward greater opposition to the war and greater pessimism about the war. It seems that, nearly nine years after the US invasion, war exhaustion is driving Americans to increasingly call for a pullout.

The poll showed that Americans largely approve of the idea of withdrawing troops from Iraq, though the validity of this question must be in doubt as it was couched in terms of support or opposition for President Obama’s mythical end to the war this month. The poll did show about two thirds of Americans oppose of the Iraq War, however.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.