Poll: U.S. public backs Afghanistan troop plan - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Poll: U.S. public backs Afghanistan troop plan

WASHINGTON — Americans by 2-1 approve of President Obama’s decision to send 17,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan despite skepticism over whether they can succeed in stabilizing the security situation there within the next few years.

A USA TODAY-Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday shows a reservoir of support for Obama’s first major military decision as president. Two-thirds express approval of his order to expand the U.S. deployment to Afghanistan by 50 percent; one third disapprove.

Half of those surveyed say they’d support a decision to send another 13,000 troops, which would fulfill the request by U.S. commanders to nearly double the U.S. force in Afghanistan even as troops are being withdrawn from Iraq.

Even so, there is measurable opposition. One of four Americans say Obama should reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan or withdraw them entirely. That opposition is stronger among Obama’s fellow Democrats than among Republicans: 29 percent of Democrats, compared with 17 percent of Republicans.

The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan was launched a month after Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, targeting the al-Qaida terrorists who planned the attacks and the fundamentalist Taliban regime that sheltered them. About 36,000 U.S. troops are now on duty there.

Americans are split over whether the United States will be able to establish a stable enough situation in Afghanistan within the next three years to allow most U.S. troops to be withdrawn. While 49 percent say they will, another 46 percent say they won’t. Most of those predict a stalemate between the United States and the Taliban.

The survey of 1,013 adults, taken by landline and cell phone, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.