Poll: Americans favor Afghanistan pullout plans
According to a Gallup poll out Wednesday, a majority of Americans agree with President Obama’s plan to begin pulling American troops out of Afghanistan this year, although responses were split over the details of when U.S. forces should come home. Although nearly three quarters of respondents said they agreed with the idea of drawing down U.S. troops, only about 43 percent of those polled said they approve specifically of Obama’s goal of pulling out the approximately 33,000 “surge” troops this year and next.
You can check out the full data here, but Americans’ party affiliation and views of the president — not surprisingly — appear to be linked with their opinions on the Afghanistan drawdown:
The slight majority of Democrats, 57%, say the 30,000 figure is about right; however — in line with vocal criticism of the plan from Rep. Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats who want a more aggressive drawdown — 30% call it too low.
Independents’ reactions are more closely divided: 40% call it about right, 33% too low, and 18% too high. Republicans are the most fractured of all, with about a third saying the withdrawal figure is about right, a third calling it too high, and 20% too low …
Americans’ reaction to Obama’s timetable for withdrawing troops could reflect their views on the pace of troop withdrawal as well as their perceptions about the impact that announcing a timetable could have on the U.S. war effort. Perhaps as a result, less than a third (30%) roundly endorse Obama’s timetable, while another third think the troops should be withdrawn sooner and 31% think the U.S. should not set any timetable.
Democrats are the most supportive of Obama’s timetable, but fewer than half, 45%, agree with it, while 40% think the troops should leave sooner.
The slight majority of Republicans (54%) say no timetable should be set, while the rest are evenly divided between agreeing with Obama’s timetable (19%) and wanting an accelerated one (20%).
But even though many Americans seem to support the president’s broad goals for Afghanistan, an increasing number say they disapprove of the U.S. involvement with the Libya intervention, Gallup found.
