Poll: 42% See Afghanistan War as 'Mistake'

Figure highest since question first asked in November 2001

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 17, 2009 8:55 AM CDT

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Poll: 42% See Afghanistan War as 'Mistake' — US soldiers patrol near the site of an explosion on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, March 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Americans increasingly think the war in Afghanistan was a bad move from the start, a USA Today/Gallup poll this weekend found. Some 42% of respondents said it was a “mistake” to send troops to Afghanistan, the highest percentage since the question was first asked in a November 2001 poll. Last month that figure was 30%; only 6% called the war a mistake in January 2002.

Meanwhile, 38% said the Afghanistan effort is going well, the lowest mark since 2006. The public’s support for the war “is critical because it's almost certainly going to be very long and very difficult,” said a military analyst.
(More Afghanistan stories.)

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