November 17, 2009 6:30 PM

Poll: Most Say War in Afghanistan Going Badly

By
Brian Montopoli
Topics
Polling
(CBS)
More Americans than ever believe the war in Afghanistan is going badly for the United States, a new CBS News poll finds.

Sixty-nine percent now say things are going badly for the U.S. in Afghanistan, a sharp increase from the 53 percent who said so in September. Just 23 percent say things are going well, down 12 points from September.

The findings reflect the most negative assessment of the war ever measured in CBS News polls.

Special Report: Afghanistan

Assessments have declined in particular among Republicans and independents. In September, 47 percent of Republicans thought the war was going well for the U.S.; that figure has now fallen to 27 percent. Among independents, positive assessments of the war have fallen from 34 percent in September to 21 percent.

The new poll also suggests that Americans have become increasingly skeptical about President Obama's handling of Afghanistan. Just 38 percent now approve of the president's performance on Afghanistan, down from 43 percent in October and 58 percent in April. Forty-three percent disapprove, an increase of nine points from last month.

Most of the change can be attributed to independents. While 44 percent approved of Mr. Obama's performance on Afghanistan a month ago, just 30 percent approve today.

Read the Complete Poll

(CBS)
The president is presently in the midst of a protracted assessment of the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan and is expected to announce a new strategy in the coming weeks.

Americans are split on whether or not the president should follow the recommendations of commanders in Afghanistan and send more troops to the country. Thirty-two percent want a troop increase, a five-point decrease from last month. Thirty-nine percent, meanwhile, was troops levels decreased. Another 20 percent want troop levels kept where they are.

Thirty-six percent say adding troops will make the situation in Iraq better, while 22 percent say doing so will make things worse. Thirty-one percent say adding troops will have no impact.

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This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,167 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone November 13-16, 2009. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

Add a Comment See all 30 Comments
by davcor2 November 25, 2009 8:50 PM EST
My opinion isn't worth much but how about pulling everyone out of Afganistan. Let the Taliban and Al Quada come out then smart bomb em with remote manned aircraft. They get dumped on and we don't lose any more troops . . . . . . . .
Reply to this comment
by cleric60 November 24, 2009 3:57 PM EST
It is truly regretable that after the Russians were driven out by Afghanistans with US arms assistance, that our government didn't begin a program to rebuild, educate the people, restore their bombed out cities; instead we allowed the Taliban to begin taking over that nation. So instead of building/educating a society, we are bombing a society. War breeds war.
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by 23bigdon1 November 21, 2009 3:04 PM EST
The war in Afghanistan is not going well, and there is a very good reason for that. The war started out well. In about six weeks after 9/11/ George Bush dispatched small numbers of Special Forces teams, CIA operatives and other clandestine forces into the country to track the al-Qaida leadership, including Osama bin Ladin and the Taliban that supported them.

These small groups of warriors, reinforced by a few battalions of Airborne troops and Rangers dropped into stratetic locations such as Kandahar, the capitol of Taliban controlled Helmand province, and supported by the extremely precise and devastating use of dedicated air power soon had bin Ladin and the Taliban on the run. They came within a hairs-breath of killing or capturing bin Ladin until some questionable decisions by mid/upper-level echelon commanders allowed him to slip out of the Tora Bora and into the Pakistan border regions.

With the unwise and unnecessary invasion of Iraq, however, the immediate shift of effort and more importantly, resources, to the Iraq theater essentially doomed the Afghan war to the back burner and possible failure. The Afghan was commanders were denied the assets required to sustain the war-fighting capability they so desparatly needed to keep the enemy they had routed at bay. The manpower, airpower, helicopters, vehicles, armor, artillery, and all of the other bullets and beans needed to fight a war were now headed to Iraq. The Bush administration's strategic objectives for Iraq left the few assets we had in Afghanistan to whither on the vine with little or no support. That is the underlying reason the war is now going badly. It has been going badly ever since the Iraq incursion began. The question now is, what can be done to fix the problem, but first we must decide if we are there to find and punish the people who attacked us, or are we there to create a new nation in our image. I vote for the former.
Reply to this comment
by amacd385 November 19, 2009 9:48 PM EST
The New York Times editorial today was much like the Boston Globe (and many others): "There is almost no chance of holding off the Taliban (or plotting an eventual American withdrawal) without a minimally credible Afghan government and security forces."

Remember this --- that the NYT stated that the U.S. can not withdraw, or even "plot"/plan for withdrawal, "without a minimally credible Afghan government and security forces."

This bottom-line recommendation of "no possibility of even planning withdrawal" by the Gray Lady is a death sentence for another Vietnam.

The next time any progressives wonder whether the existing media can have ANY ROLE (or should have ANY INPUT) regarding how a Global People's Movement confronts this Global ruling-elite corporate/financial EMPIRE --- which hides behind the facade of its two-party 'Vichy' sham of democracy --- we need to remember this editorial, and remember to add "corporate/financial/MEDIA" to the definition of the EMPIRE that we need to confront.

Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Reply to this comment
by mark_aleshnick November 18, 2009 9:57 PM EST
When I allowed myself to be lulled into complacency to the spineless dumbocratic party's nominee, I had no idea that this lying snake obama would be worse than bush. At least with bush, one could look into his eyes and know that he was a clueless liar.

mr constitutional uncle tom lawyer speaks with eloquence and then TOTALLY ignores his constitutional duties, which were to defend and protect the constitution.

The idiots who claim that the fabricator in chief has a master plan, and we need to give him more time are ignorant of the fact that his responsibilities to uphold the constitution started on day 1.

I worked for his campaign, and as unlikely as it may be, I will now continue to work for his impeachment, and to see him hauled before the criminal court in the Hague (along with his predecessors) for crimes against humanity. I, also, will continue to boycott ALL israeli and american companies and those that conduct business with the 2 rogue states.

mark aleshnick
Okinawa, japan
Reply to this comment
by 23bigdon1 November 23, 2009 1:02 PM EST
Typical name-calling idiocy. Why don't you start your own party, you would fit right in with Rush, Bill, Sean, and the rest of the talking Fauxheads.
by terribletire November 18, 2009 10:53 AM EST
Gee who could have anticipated putting the most incompetent General in the whole army in charge there would go badly? We have absolutely no business being there slaughtering people anyway. As long as the Obama administration allows the war criminals of the past administration to remain free and continues their policy of global terror America will only continue to decline.
Reply to this comment
by Empire-George November 18, 2009 10:16 AM EST
by pjk12354 November 17, 2009 10:35 PM EST

Here is an exit strategy.......1. Admit we screwed up going there. 2. Load everybody up & bring them home. 3. Take care of OUR problems here at home.
___________________

3. Take care of our problems at home ??

what problem at home will be solved by bringing mountain divisions and marines home from Afghanistan ?? do you have some Al Qaeda that just infiltrated your West Virginia mountains ??

Did you ever hear of something called the Posse Comatatus act of 1878, which prohibits the government from using combat troops inside of America's borders against their own people, hence the formation of the State National Guards.....so these particular troops would have no role in "taking care of our problems at home".....killing the enemy and counter terrorism IS the problem.
Reply to this comment
by Empire-George November 18, 2009 10:11 AM EST
a little off topic, check out today's cartoon about Lou Dobbs and CNN

http://www.nypost.com/opinion/cartoons/delonas.htm
Reply to this comment
by hagar39 November 18, 2009 6:49 AM EST
The Soviet Union spent about 15 years and had 650,000 troops in Afghanistan. And they could not conquer this Afghanistan. Now the USA is trying to conquer Afghanistan with 70,000 troops? Will another 40,000 help?
The USA has been in the Middle East since the middle 1920's trying to conquer this part of the world. Look how far we come. Wan tto stop terrorism? Leave the Middle East. The people in the Middle East don't want to be ruled by a so called Christain nation. FACT: We won't win.
Reply to this comment
by pjk12354 November 18, 2009 7:10 AM EST
Ditto!
by Empire-George November 18, 2009 10:20 AM EST
hagar39, FYI, this isn't the inept rusting Soviet Union army....this is the United States of America and the best fighting force on the planet, so please don't make comparisons to the Soviets in the 80's....and secondly, we are not, nor have we ever, been trying to "conquer" anyone in the middle east
by DoctorGlennPHD November 18, 2009 12:26 AM EST
Now matter how badly Obama and/or congress screws up, it's all Bush's fault. John Kennedy created the war in Vietnam, and Lyndon Baines Johnson kept the war going for industrial reasons. Mean time, we got our ***** kicked. How quickly we forget...
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