Poll: Support for war in Afghanistan hits all-time low

CBS News

CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.

Two weeks after an American soldier in Afghanistan allegedly went on a rampage killing 17 Afghan civilians, American confidence in the war is at an all-time low, a new CBS News/New York Times poll suggests.

According to the survey, conducted among 986 adults from March 21-25, just 23 percent of Americans believe the U.S. is doing the right thing by fighting in Afghanistan. That percentage - the lowest ever recorded by CBS News and the New York Times in this survey - is down from 36 percent in November 2011. Sixty-nine percent of Americans said the U.S. should not be involved in Afghanistan, the highest percentage of respondents who have said so since CBS News/New York Times started asking that question in 2009.

Only one in four Americans believes the war is going well for the U.S., the poll indicates, down from 48 percent last November. This percentage comes close to the question's all-time low, at 23 percent in November 2009, shortly before President Obama announced his plan for a surge of 30,000 troops in Afghanistan.

In recent months, a string of controversies involving U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan may have cast negative light on the ongoing conflict there: On March 11, an American Staff Sgt., Robert Bales, is accused of leaving his base in Southern Afghanistan to kill 17 Afghan civilians in what is being charged as a premeditated attack. In February, meanwhile, five U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan were found to have inadvertently burned discarded copies of the Koran, which sparked days of protests there and resulted in several deaths of U.S. troops and others.

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Read the complete poll (PDF)

The CBS News/New York Times survey finds that just 27 percent of Americans think the war there has been mostly a success for the U.S., while 59 percent say it has not been. In September of 2011, 39 percent felt the war had mostly been a success for the United States.

More Republicans than Democrats seem to have positive feelings about the war in Afghanistan. Thirty-seven percent of Republicans said they thought the war had been mostly a success for the U.S., and 32 percent think the U.S. is doing the right thing by fighting there.

Among Democrats and independents, positivity on those questions is lower: Of Democrats, 24 percent said they thought the war had been mostly a success and 18 percent think the U.S. is doing the right thing. Twenty-three percent of independents thought the war had been mostly a success, and 22 percent said the U.S. is doing the right thing.

Last June, President Obama announced that he would be bringing 10,000 troops home from Afghanistan by the end of 2011, with another 23,000 leaving no later than September 2012. By 2014, he said, the mission's transition "from combat to support" would be complete.

CBS News

According to the CBS News/New York Times survey, many Americans would like to get troops home sooner. Forty-seven percent of Americans said they would like to see the timetable for the departure of U.S. troops moved up. Thirty-three percent think the schedule for withdrawal should remain as is, and 17 percent think the U.S. should stay in Afghanistan for as long as it takes.

Most Americans (55 percent) say they do not have a clear idea of what the U.S. is fighting for in Afghanistan now that Osama bin Laden is dead, while 42 percent say the opposite. In September of 2011, 50 percent of Americans said they had a clear picture of U.S. goals in Afghanistan and 43 percent said they did not.

Among those who said they did have a clear idea of what the U.S. is fighting for in Afghanistan, 35 percent cited combating terrorism, 16 percent said stabilizing the country, 12 percent pointed to preventing the Taliban from taking control, and 9 percent said oil and gas.

In a interview that aired Monday on "CBS This Morning," General John Allen, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, argued that the mission in Afghanistan remains "essential" and that Al Qaeda "remains a virulent organization" there.

"We don't want the Taliban to put down roots, or the al Qaeda to put down roots in Afghanistan that can facilitate Afghanistan becoming - once again - a launching pad for international terrorism," Allen told CBS' Charlie Rose.

He said that even in light of the recent tragedy, the U.S.-Afghan relationship was "not broken."

"I worry that the complications from these recent events can distract us from the larger strategic imperative of this campaign," Allen said. "We have seen that while the relationship may have been bruised in these events, the relationship has not been broken."

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This poll was conducted by telephone from March 21-25, 2012 among 986 adults nationwide. Phone numbers were dialed from 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 may be higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

[warisbad]

None of you acually give a crap about anything. You let them go in because they told you that you were in danger and you were undeducated about the subject.Now you pretend to be against the war and say,"John the soldier would still be alive if it wasnt for Bush." You all make me sick to my stomach. Your tribal. You think that your team is the only one that matters. Some body counts show totals of 1.2 million Iraqis. Some show closer to 1.8. And even more recent I have seen a study that said we had exceed 2 million. Now you'll say to yourself, "Well the terrorists killed all of those people, not us." It was you. You who let Bush march into a country that wasnt his, and cause those terrorists to blow things us. If we were not there, their would be no reason to blow themselves up. And now you'll go back to hating Muslims. Well let me tell you this, Muslims didnt do it. A REAL MUSLIM does not stray away from the original texts. A true Muslim cannot join a different section of Islam because that is exactly what Muhammed told them not to do. And the only people who think they get 72 virgins are from different streams of Islam. And they are the minority compared to real Muslims. What those radicals are doing is the same thing Christians do. They say,"Oh well just because the bible says it is okay to have slaves doesnt mean that god wanted us too. I mean that was probably a mistanslation. What? You said the bible says we can sacrifice people in exchanged for answered prayers? No that didnt happen. God didnt say that."
Just as you use your book to set your moral guidelines, so do they. And just as the Christian terrorist Page thought he was justified for killing the Sikhs, the smal stream of Muslims think they are going to be rewarded for driving out the invading enemy. We are the invading evil btw. Those few radical suicide bombers are the quivalent of Westboro Baptist Church. Small and stupid. The bulk of the enemies are mad because you already killed their children, wife, mother, father, aunt, uncle, newphew etc.

[wilipa]

USA is doing a beautiful work on Afghanistan, keep doing, next to fix will be IRAN.

[warisbad]

I cant believe people like you exist. Makes me doubt how long the US will make it before the show is over. Oh im scared. I hate it. I hate you. Everyone suporting these wars that will eventually get us killed. God have mercy.

[Rodeo_Joe]

Note the sanitized "American soldier - killing 17 Afghan civilians" instead of "American soldier mass murders Babies & Children".

So where were all the outraged demonstrators? Florida?

[lostourway]

So, if everyone is so against the war, why are we still there????

[keote_poet]

cleaning up bush's mess.

[slatep]

We are still in Afghanistan because Obama and Congress don't give a fat rat's ass about what the American people want.

All have their own agenda and most of these agenda seem to be to do as much damage to the US, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as possible so the 1% can "rule" our country.!

Majority no longer rules here in the US.


Politicians no longer care what the citizens of the US want.

As long as they can continue to create enough chaos here in the US to disguise what's really going on in government; they're satisfied.!!!

We have Obama running for King and the rest of the politicians knocking one another out of the way to fulfill their promises to their campaign contributors.

[ajk_cbsnews]

Yes, we need to begin pulling out, today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not to worry, all of you CHICKEN HAWKS! If we pull out of Afghanistan, there is an effort afoot to start yet another preemptive war debacle in Iran! If this happens send Wolfowitz, Krystal and the other CH's in the first wave! I am sick of their buffoonery!

[ozilot]

Obama achieved the "mission accomplished" the eluded Bush when bin Laden was killed. There is nothing more to do unless the U.S. plans to unleash "total" war against the Taliban which will not happen.

Given that Bush has installed and Obama has sustained Karzai's regime which is anything but a "democratic" society by western standards...and lets face it never will be and the fact that we are now negotiating with the Taliban...anyone remember the fall of Saigon back in the 70s? There is little hope of doing more (of what and for whom) is questionable at best.

The smart thing to do is to withdraw from Afghanistan and let the Afghan's fend for themselves.

[nonpolitico]

Actually, GWBush got the Mission Accomplished when he sent in the B52s.
If you remember, they blasted the Al Quieda guys out of their desert hideouts, and they ran off into Pakistan.
Had the WH then just said OK job done, it would have been over.
Seems someone at State managed a change to "hearts and minds" whatever that is! So 10 years later, here we are!
If Washington could just make up its collective mind, (and I use the term "mind" loosely), the job would be done, and hundreds of Americans would still have a whole family!
Obama must also shoulder blame. After all, wasn`t he the one who gave the Taliban the "timetable for withdrawal".
I know that Democrats like things all done and dusted and written down somewhere, but to tell our enemies...hey, just have a holiday in Pakistan for a coupla years, you can return after our withdrawal deadline is up"
Politicians get the USA into these messes, and American Patriots have to get the country outa the mess.
Perhaps we could begin by upsetting the media.
Begin a petition to have the soldier who ran amok freed from prison, after all the System that sent him into harms way so many times are not jailed or under threat, as they oughta be!!

[JKJonesie]

I truely believe the that war against the Talaban and Al Quida was lost when it started. It was more of a political asset to the Bush administration than a serious operation. 9/11 was used to minipulate the American Public and to control public opinion.
The War in Afganastan and Iraq was only for the financial benifit of a few. Many of the worlds people were harmed and their resources were drained, just so a few people could become unbelievely rich and powerful.
What a nasty world we live in.

[Quantum-Mechanic]

Sort of like Obama's approval ratings that are also connected in the way he has handled the war with all his Muslim terrorist sandal licking while crying all the time 'But I got Osama' which seems it will be the highlight of his campaign since the rest of his record is pathetic.
He has even managed to have allowed this war's support to hit an all time low than when Bush was president.

So where is all the war protests with Cindy Sheehan and Code Pink and all the demonizing of Obama from the double standard hypocritical left?
The Dems and the left turn my stomach with their hypocrisy.
America is also sick of them and their Novelty fake president.

[Micmart3000]

Flame me for conspiracy theorys all you want but we still have no idea what really happened on 9-11 or who was really responsible... and we have now fought two wars because of that day. All those brave men and women on both sides who have given their lives fiighting the war on terror will never be able to enjoy life again because of that day in New York...and the ones responsible are laughing at us all because they committed the perfect crime and will in fact NEVER be caught.

[Quantum-Mechanic]

So you then also believe Obama was born in Kenya and
Obama has commited the perfect crime being elected president as well?

[ajk_cbsnews]

It is ALL connected, my friend!

[ladyang]

But a few years ago, all you neocons/teabaggers/evangelitaban were all for this war. Bush, Rove, and Cheney sold this war and fooled all you idiots to back him and this war