One of the themes of this blog in its 2+ years existence has been the state of public opinion worldwide on the matter of support for the war in Afghanistan. Most of the polls cited have been taken in countries with troops involved in the occupation and we have seen country after country arrive at the point where the majority of their population now opposes their participation in the war:
– Brits
– Poles
– French
– Germans
– Czechs
As one might expect, even as country after country came to their moral senses on the issue, the war’s boosters largely ignored public opposition in the supposedly democratic countries. When this obvious disconnect has been addressed at all, it is normally to ask what the war’s overseers must do to “explain” the war to the public – presumably so that they will then support the organized violence perpetrated in their names.
All the while, of course, these warmongers have been promoting a war for democracy, as odd as that sounds. Odder still when we consider that the Afghans themselves have come to oppose this war being fought for their liberation and to install democracy in their country – not that the war’s cheerleaders have addressed this development.
But all of this is old hat. The populations of most troop-contributing countries have opposed the war for some time now. So too the population of Afghanistan. What is new is this:
Public Opinion in U.S. Turns Against Afghan War
Jennifer Agiesta and Jon Cohen – Washington Post
AUGUST 20 – A majority of Americans now see the war in Afghanistan as not worth fighting, and just a quarter say more U.S. troops should be sent to the country, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll…
The new poll comes amid widespread speculation that Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, will request more troops for his stepped-up effort to remove the Taliban from Afghan towns and villages. That position gets the backing of 24 percent of those polled, while nearly twice as many, 45 percent, want to decrease the number of military forces there…
[M]ajorities of liberals and Democrats alike now, for the first time, solidly oppose the war and are calling for a reduction in troop levels.
Overall, seven in 10 Democrats say the war has not been worth its costs, and fewer than one in five support an increase in troop levels.
Republicans (70 percent say it is worth fighting) and conservatives (58 percent) remain the war’s strongest backers, and the issue provides a rare point of GOP support for Obama’s policies… (link)
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