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Poll: Most Say Afghanistan War Not Worth Fighting
WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans say the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting, according to a poll released on the eve of that nation's elections.
Soldiers of the U.S. Army's 3rd Combat Brigade 10th Mountain Division, based out of Fort Drum, N.Y., evacuate a wounded comrade in Afghanistan's Wardak Province on Wednesday. (David Goldman / AP) An ABC News-Washington Post poll found 51
percent who said the war was not worth fighting, while 47 percent said
it was worth it.
Only a quarter in the poll favored sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan while almost twice as many would like to see the number of troops decreased. At the beginning of this year, people were slightly more inclined to say the number of troops should be increased than decreased.
Three years ago the U.S. had about 20,000 troops in Afghanistan. There are expected to be about 68,000 by year's end.
By a 2-1 margin, the poll found that people doubted Thursday's election in Afghanistan will produce an effective government. The voting to choose a new president comes at a time when the nation is struggling with an armed insurgency, drugs, corruption and a weak government.
The public is more supportive of President Barack Obama's handling of the Afghanistan war than of the war itself, with six in 10 in the ABC-Post poll saying they approve. Those findings are similar to those of an AP-GfK poll last month that found 55 percent approved of Obama's handling of the war in Afghanistan.
The AP poll in mid-July found that 44 percent favored the Afghanistan war and 53 percent were opposed. People were opposed to the Iraq war by a 2-1 margin in the AP poll.
U.S. officials say the Afghan elections can be an important step toward achieving the key goal of preventing that country from again sheltering al-Qaida.
About six in 10 in the ABC-Post poll said they are confident in the ability of the U.S. and its allies to defeat the Taliban and provide effective economic development.
Participants in the poll were divided on the question of whether the U.S. is winning the war in Afghanistan, with 42 percent saying the U.S. is winning and 36 percent saying the U.S. is losing. The rest said neither side is winning, or were undecided.
The ABC-Post poll of 1,001 people was taken Aug. 13-17 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
- Posted in
28 Comments so far
Show AllObama is a "Corporate Marketing Creation".
So says British journalist John Pilger:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C62KAmMzu0E
That's the down side of starting a completely unnecessary war. It's hell to get out of once you have started it. You have destabilized the country even more than it was to begin with and have solved no problems. Just created newer and bigger ones.
Hey, poll us who have been against this fiasco from the get go--only the stupid who have not learned from history would have any part of this wasteful, unwinnable war without end. O'bushama will bring this nation to it's starving knees before long--RESIST THE OPPRESSION OF OTHER PEOPLE-AND FOR WHAT NOBLE PURPOSE do we fight???
Just Foreign Policy has mounted a petition to press the Senate to produce and pass an exit bill
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1439/t/9648/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1351
Another article about Afghanistan and not a damn word about the motive at first.....THE FALSE FLAG OF 9/11.
Let us see how long this post stays up. Even ICH is censoring 9/11 material now.
History...it's what's being re-written...
Take another poll to find out what percent believe people in Afghanistan were responsible for 9-11. We are soooh misinformed!
If anything we let the Saudis do it, maybe we gave them everything they needed.
Nobody knows because there NEVER was a REAL investigation!
NMBill August 20th, 2009 12:27 pm..........."Mis-informed"is too damn nice. WE WERE WERE LIED TO. Period.
Quite simply, that LIE is enough of a case to prosecute the past administration.
That paved the path to the last 8 years of occupation and murder.
We are living a lie, and until we fix it from the beginning we will forever wallow in the stink of it.
NMBill August 20th, 2009 2:09 pm..............Precisely! Nothing substantial and lasting can be built on a foundation of lies. Until the truth sets us all free, there will be HELL to pay in this country. You have not seen anything as yet.
Obama, like Bush and LBJ before him, thinks this country can "do it all". Well, this country CAN'T do it all -- no country can.
If the USA doesn't abandon interventionism and return to the principles of its Founders, we're all on the road to Ruin.
PaulfromGA August 20th, 2009 10:44 am....The "founders" were elitist land owners looking out for their own asses. That's what started us on this road to "Ruin". We need a new paradigm
The Road to Ruin cannot be found on any map; so there is no way to know how long it truly is. But we are already over the horizon.
six in 10 in the ABC-Post poll saying they approve.
ABC is corporate news that makes money on wars. Their questions are set up to supply the answers they want. They are no different than Rush Limberger with oxy contin breath
The framing of this lede poll question cuts straight to the heart of the matter: when is it ever worth it to fight any war?
Answer: only when your country has been attacked by a foreign military force, and the continued existence of your form of government and culture faces an genuine existential threat.
By that criteria, World War II was just about the only war in American history that was really worth fighting. The 47% of the American public who told the pollsters they considered the war in Afghanistan/Pakistan worth fighting obviously apply some other unarticulated, subjective moral formula than the self defense/survival model that I favor.
Maybe the supporters of a continued US/NATO military presence in Af/Pak think it is "worth it" as a symbolic, cathartic payback for 9/11. For some, perhaps it's worth it to profiteer, chase after the pipedreams of Unocal, refine the latest hi tech tools for dispensing death and destruction, or to carve out an enhanced strategic foothold for Uncle Sam in the grand chess game for global leverage in central Asia and/or in the Middle East.
For others, waging more war might be worth it in order to prop up figures like Karzai and Zadari, strike a blow at international heroin trafficking, or to spread western secular values into Muslim societies where Islamist theocracy is seen as an increasingly attractive alternative to the world as it is. For a few hawks (like Dick Cheney), it's "worth it" simply because there's always an outside chance that a nuke may, some day, wind up somewhere with some brown skinned jihadist's finger near the magic button - therefore, kill more of them over there, before the omnipresent terrorist boogeyman can kill us over here.
The point is, war should never be worth it for the aggressor who invades and occupies another land for any ulterior agenda, rather than acting in genuine self defense against evil folks who immediately threaten harm.
Bill from Saginaw
Very good post Bill, I would add to your lifestyle improvement point by relating that a recent NPR segment noted how soooo many more Afghans are using cell phones, etc. now as if that was an intrinsic sign of progress or improvement.
Before elections, people need peace and prosperity.
The United States, especially its so-called "government", is obsessed with Death. This war will go on and on and on until we are driven out. Bollocks Obimbo will recycle the paper this poll was printed on and turn it into toilet tissue. He is "green". That is one of the few differences between a Democrat and a Republican. The Republicans will take the poll, attach razor blades to it and shove it down your throat.
It's amazing how much people forget why we are there!
Does September 11, 2001 ring a bell?
I want for some of you people who believe that it is a waste of time, to tell me what happen on that beautiful sunny, warm, no cloud in the sky day!
If someone breaks into your house and murders your family what would you do....would you say, oh, that's ok and let the murder get away with it, because it costs the taxpayor to much money to prosecute the person?
If we didn't get distracted by BS of the previous administration to invade another country, maybe, just maybe we would have caught the perpetrator of September 11, 2001....it was a possibility at the time!
But because of the distraction the Moron Bush Jr. created, it only has made it harder for it to be done!!!!
If we INVESTIGATED what happened that day, maybe we would know what happened!
The official story is a total fabrication.
After September 11th, "terrorists" no longer needed an entire nation to operate from, to train, to plan, to organize and, finally, to act. The attacks of September 11th changed all that, for the "terrorists" and for us as well. If they do need an entire nation, there are always places they can go that will welcome them and which the United States has no capacity to attack or invade. As I have written before, Afghanistan is the 21st century version of Spain in the 1930's. It is the laboratory where new weapons and tactics will be tried out over and over and over again by the various branches of the military. It is where the professional military ticket punchers get their tickers punched in order to become generals. Then there is oil and natural gas, which is to say, there is the sole American God: MONEY. That's an enormous part of the equation also. There is no Victory in Afghanistan, only Ignominious Defeat. It tastes like shit, which is now pretty much the staple American diet.
Whyputaname August 20th, 2009 12:19 pm....It was a false flag...WE were the perpetrators. The distraction was away from the truth that a real investigation would have shown. Support NYC CAN..
If someone breaks into my house and murders my family, I would like THAT PERSON to be caught and put away after a fair trial. I would not take a guess about which county he came from and then bomb that whole county (and install a gas pipeline there.)
Joe
The Taliban government offered to negotiate over detention and trial of bin Laden and others, but only if the US produced evidence sufficient to warrant a trial. The Bush administration refused to produce such evidence, meaning either it didn't have it, or that the bin Laden connection was bogus and the US intended to attack no matter what.
There is much physical evidence to support the hypothesis that the WTC towers fell due to controlled demolition, and none to contradict it. After years of work (I believe it took 7 for WTC 7), NIST produced a report saying that it was possible the official story was true, although the conclusion was written to change possible to near certainty. Circumstantial evidence is another matter: there is strong evidence that many were forewarned, and afterwards, the Bush administration has always behaved as if it either deliberately let the attacks happen and did nothing, or was more actively part of the plot.
gde August 20th, 2009 5:33 pm...........As with the 9/11 Commission report, the NIST Report was a farce. Check out ae911truth.org. Get some FREE dvds from 911dvdproject.com and more info. Support NYC CAN. The truth will set us all free.
why... You ARE correct, we went there 'because' of 9/11 and yes, 'that moron Bush' et.al. created distractions....
That agreed to, the "target" of this exercise was Osama Bin Laden and Al Quieta (sp?).... NOT the Afghan people or farmers. The Russians were there to secure land to run a pipe line, bottom line. I suspect that WE too have that goal in mind at this point.
Interviews with local Afghans have reported that the "rebuilding" projects are all out to lunch, because they bring in foreign companies rather than hire local, and spend ten times more than it would cost at local economy wages. We have started our own little biased war against the local poppy growers, spending millions to prevent them from making a living. The 'logical' thing to do would be to "buy" the opium from the local farmer at one cent per kilo more than the black market offers and then use it to make medicines for ourselves and the third world. We'd save a lot of money.
It has become about MONEY for contractors, NOT 9/11 justice. Oh, and ON THAT BRIGHT SUNNY DAY, what did our president do for 14 minutes AFTER he knew without a doubt that our country was being attacked.... he acted like a man who KNEW that "something" was going to happen and was told not to worry. He did NOT act like a man who's job it is to protect this country from all enemies, foreign and domestic... If you'll review your history, he'd made a comment about 'what a terrible pilot' it was when the first plane hit "before" starting his reading to the class. A SANE commander in chief would most certainly have excused himself from an elemtary school class and explained that his duties demanded his immediate attention....
I enlisted right after the Tet Offensive in 1968, because I was young, foolish and believed that it was my 'duty'. Yes, we have lost a lot of Americans, but sending MORE to die for "corporate profit", is not, in my opinion, a wise policy. Wasn't back in the 60's and 70's, isn't now. YES, I do still want to get Osama Bin Laden, but we are NOT working towards that goal as I see at this juncture. The US was told before we set foot on foreign soil by Islamic leaders that IF the US was there for "justice" that we would be supported, but IF we were there for "revenge" that we would be opposed. I don't think that they contemplated "profit", but I'm pretty sure that that would fall into the 'opposed' catagory.
If the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting today, it was not worth fighting in 2001.
Polls showed overwhelming support for the war in 2001.
The question that people have to ask themselves is "Why did I change my mind? What MOTIVATED me to decide it no longer worth fighting".
Answer that honestly and you will reveal a lot about yourself.
This points to the importance of "looking back".
Opinion polls in France have been saying exactly the same (but here it's rather 60% 'against' vs 40% in favour; ditto in the United Kingdom, in Germany I think, and Canada.
But who cares among our leaders?
"Government of the people, by the people, for the people"? Tell it to the marines!
Thanks to Cygnus-X1-isaHole for the reference.
Only 51% of Americans think the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting? What a SICK joke, i.e., reality.
47% say it's worth fighting.
Now, 47% of over 300mn people for population, now that's an awful lot of awfully SICK people!
The PTB have wanted a pipeline through Afghanistan for years and, by god, we are going to stay until we get one!!!