Poll: Only 17 Percent of Americans Support the War in Afghanistan

According to a CNN/ORC International survey
released today, only 17 percent of Americans support the war in
Afghanistan and most Americans want the troops there home before
the December 2014 deadline. The war may be the most unpopular in
American history.

From
CNN:

Just 17% of those questioned say they support the 12-year-long
war, down from 52% in December 2008. Opposition to the conflict now
stands at 82%, up from 46% five years ago.

“Those numbers show the war in Afghanistan with far less support
than other conflicts,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.
“Opposition to the Iraq war never got higher than 69% in CNN
polling while U.S. troops were in that country, and while the
Vietnam War was in progress, no more than six in 10 ever told
Gallup’s interviewers that war was a mistake.”

The CNN/ORC International poll is the latest poll
suggesting that Americans are becoming increasingly disillusioned
with an interventionist foreign policy. Earlier this month, the Pew
Research Center released its poll examining how American’s view the
United States’ place in the world. For the first time in the
history of the poll (almost fifty years), more than half of the
respondents agreed with the statement, “The U.S. should mind its
own business internationally and let other countries get along the
best they can on their own.”

Not only do more than half of Americans as a whole support being
less involved abroad, more than half of Republicans and
Independents also believe that the U.S. should mind its own
business:

About half of independents (55%) and Republicans (53%) and 46%
of Democrats say the United States should mind its own business
internationally. In 2002, following the 9/11 attacks, 27% of
independents, 22% of Republicans and 40% of Democrats wanted the
United States to mind its own business internationally.

That most Americans are fed up with the war in Afghanistan and
want the U.S. to mind its own business is good news for
non-interventionist Republicans such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

It is good news that most Americans oppose an interventionist
foreign policy and that the vast majority do not support the
longest war in U.S. history. Unfortunately, foreign policy is only
one of
the issues on which the opinions of American lawmakers differ
from those of the American public.