Pew Poll: Majority Of Americans Favor Immediate Afghan Pull Out -- The Hill
The number of Americans who want all American forces removed from Afghanistan has hit 56 percent -- an “all-time high,” according to the Pew Research Center.
That was the result of a new Pew poll, which is up eight percentage points from the organization’s last Afghanistan survey, conducted shortly after Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan. The June 2010 incarnation of the poll found only 40 percent of Americans favored removing troops as soon as possible.
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My Comment: Regular readers of this blog know that I have been advocating for a phased pull-out from Afghanistan since 2008, but my reasons to do so have been different from the reasons that the White House has been advocating (my main argument is that if you want to win the war in Afghanistan, you must change the culture of Afghans ..... an impossibility unless you are willing to completely obliterate it, which fortunately is not our policy). The recent White House message has been that the costs of all of these wars is becoming unsustainable, that economics and our precarious financial/debt situation cannot continue .... a line of argument that most Americans have now accepted. Unfortunately .... when I read stories like this one .... I realize that this line of argument does not "jive" with the data. Our economic problems are far deeper than the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and God knows where else, and unless we want to remain a significant player on the international scene .... in the economic, military, and diplomacy fields .... we better start fixing our political/economic mess first. Cutting back from places like Iraq and Afghanistan .... yes .... cutting the defense budget yes .... but all of this will only solve a miniscule part of our debt/financial mess.
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