The violence-scarred elections in Afghanistan have just added to America’s exhaustion with eight years of war in Afghanistan.
With memories of the 9/11 terrorist attacks dimming, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows a majority, 51% of Americans now believe the war is not worth the fight, an increase of 6 percentage points in a month.
Most Americans have confidence in the ability of the US to meet its primary goals of defeating the Taliban and molding an effective Afghan government, but few believe this week’s elections there are likely to produce such a government.
When it comes to the baseline question, 42% of Americans say the US is winning in Afghanistan; 36% say it is losing, while the rest are undecided. The new poll comes as General Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, prepares to ask for more troops for his stepped-up effort to remove the Taliban from Afghan villages.
