Americans' Faith in Afghan War Fades

[AndrewC]

ABC News: U.S. Support for Afghan War Hurt by Country's 'Battle Fatigue'

he latest ABC News/Washington Post poll found that a startling 45 percent of Americans said they do not think the war in Afghanistan is worth fighting, despite the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which provoked the war in the first place.

The growing disenchantment with the Afghan deployment hasn't reached the level of national frustration with the Iraq war, but after more than six years with U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan and violence on the rise, Americans are becoming increasingly wary about the country's involvement.

Fifty-one percent of Americans now say that the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan has been unsuccessful, up from 24 percent in fall 2002.

Only 44 percent of Americans consider the war in Afghanistan a success, down from 70 percent in 2002.

The national poll of 1,119 randomly selected adults was conducted by telephone July 10-13, 2008, with a margin of error of three percentage points.

For Sholom Keller, a veteran who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, it comes as no surprise that support for the war in Afghanistan is fading.

"I'm not shocked at all that American support is waning," Keller told ABCNews.com. "If we are in Afghanistan because the U.S. was attacked on Sept. 11, then I want to see the perpetrators captured and brought to justice.

"If we're not finding them in Afghanistan, then I don't know why we're there," he added. "And if they are there I want to know why we haven't found them in the last seven years if they've been giving troops the right intelligence and missions."

Experts on the Middle East told ABCNews.com that many Americans share Keller's frustration, blaming several factors, including the fatigue from hearing about not one but two wars, as well as pressing issues at home, such as the failing economy.

I'm not surprised either. People are waking up to the fact that nation building doesn't solve the "attack on America" problem. In fact the chaos in Afghanistan and Pakistan has hurt the efforts to find those that want to attack American soil. Six years of occupation and all we have to show for it is death and debt.

Interesting how if this trend continues. Obama's plan for change may need to change some more or face the ire of the people.

 

[American]

Well isn't this just ripe? The libs have been saying all along that we should be fighting in Afghanistan, BECAUSE IT'S THE ONLY JUSTIFIED WAR. They say we've been wasting time and resources in Iraq, and that Iraqis are worse off today than under Hussein. Now suddenly Afghanistan is a lost war and not worth the effort. The only thing surprising is that it took so long for the libs to change on their stance on Afghanistan. I thought they wanted to find Osama. Lib politicans are a bunch of spineless liars.

 

[Iriemon]

Well isn't this just ripe? The libs have been saying all along that we should be fighting in Afghanistan, BECAUSE IT'S THE ONLY JUSTIFIED WAR. They say we've been wasting time and resources in Iraq, and that Iraqis are worse off today than under Hussein. Now suddenly Afghanistan is a lost war and not worth the effort. The only thing surprising is that it took so long for the libs to change on their stance on Afghanistan. I thought they wanted to find Osama. Lib politicans are a bunch of spineless liars.

Nice strawman.

The libs have been saying that the intervention in Afganistan was justified, as opposed to the attack on Iraq.

Maybe some have been saying all along we should maintain an indefinite occupation of Afganistan, not this one.

Any hostile occupying force that is unwanted by large segments of the population will generate opposition over time. If the hostile occupying force cannot effectively establish a government that receives general support by the governed will face increased hostility from the populace. This is especially true in countries where the attack seems unjustified, or is viewed as particularly incompatible for cultural or religious regions.

Even a justified attack does not warrant an indefinite occupation, if the occupier cannot establish a government that has support of the populace and is capable of maintaining contrl on its own.

 

[shuamort]

Well isn't this just ripe? The libs have been saying all along that we should be fighting in Afghanistan, BECAUSE IT'S THE ONLY JUSTIFIED WAR. They say we've been wasting time and resources in Iraq, and that Iraqis are worse off today than under Hussein. Now suddenly Afghanistan is a lost war and not worth the effort. The only thing surprising is that it took so long for the libs to change on their stance on Afghanistan. I thought they wanted to find Osama. Lib politicans are a bunch of spineless liars.

Umm, what the **** are you talking about? You're ranting about the "libs" but they weren't mention in the results of the poll at all. The results in the article didn't say "51% disapprove of the war and also, they're all liberals". So please, show how you made such an odd conclusion that seems more like a partisan bash than something founded on facts.

 

[Ikari]

I can understand why people's faith is wavering in the face of unprecedented mess ups, ill planning, and unconstitutional wars this administration has waged. Afghanistan was a just target after 9/11, that was a major terrorist state with the government openly knowing and allowing terrorist activity in the state. But why the hell didn't we stay and finish the job? Instead we got side tracked into Iraq, a war mishandled since day one. And now the obvious, since we didn't stick around in Afghanistan and finish up the terrorists are coming back and we're told we need to move back there to fight again. And we're supposed to trust our government, this administration with doing it right this time? They're 0 for 2 thus far. Had we done this right from the get go, we'd never would have gone into Iraq, we would have officially declared war on Afghanistan to call up the military, we would have stuck around to accomplish the job and secure the area, then we could have started pulling out...not to start another war with a nation which posed no threat to America, but to leave the area and get the UN involved in inspections and such to keep the area secure. Maybe we wouldn't have spent trillions of dollars and thousands of Americans lives if we had just put a little logic and rationale into this process at the beginning.