A majority of voters want the conflict to end quickly – no matter their party affiliation, according to recent polls.
And Senate candidates on both sides of the aisle say they support that goal.
Prominent liberal activists, reacting to President Obama’s plan to move 30,000 troops into the region, warned late last year the surge could cause Democrats to stay home in the midterm election.
Now the issue is spreading across the political spectrum as the last of the surge prepares to move into place – just after Obama ordered the remaining U.S. combat troops out of Iraq.
Already this summer, American forces in Afghanistan suffered back-to-back record casualties and voters are starting to take notice.
A record number of respondents in the latest CNN poll, 62 percent, said they opposed the war there.
“I see some war fatigue back home,” said Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.), who’s running for Senate. “There’s a point where we have to say that the Afghan Army is trained up. There has to be a point where we say it’s time to start withdrawing, taking the training wheels off.”
Army Gen. David Petraeus this week sought to reassure war-weary Americans that the conflict in Afghanistan would soon turn a corner. "We're keenly aware that this has been ongoing for approaching nine years,” he told The Washington Post. “We fully appreciate the impatience in some quarters."
Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark.), who’s running for Senate in Arkansas, said the appointment of Petraeus and the withdrawal of the last combat brigade from Iraq has extended the public’s patience.
“The fact that we are leaving Iraq, that might be taking some of the pressure off of Afghanistan,” he said. “They see we have been able to wrap this up and focus our efforts here fairly shortly as we did in Iraq.”
Boozman, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said opposition to the war was widespread and not confined mainly to liberals as it was in the past.
“It really does cut across support in many different ways,” he said. “You could find among conservatives, liberals or whatever, there is a desire to bring this thing to a close as quickly as possible.”
4 comments:
People don't know what the hell they want. Thats one reason I'm glad we have a president now (Obama) and earlier (Bush) that didn't care much about polls when it comes to fighting war. People were all for going into Afghanistan knowing we were killing those who attacked us. Now limp d!k liberals one to run while many conservatives just want to find another source of ammo to attack Obama.
Bin Laden has been dead for years. His kidneys were shot.
This, for the uninitiated, is EXACTLY what the politicians said towards the end of the Vietnam debaucle..."we are turning the corner" and "the Vietnamese army will soon be able to fight on their own" and "we must win the hearts and minds of the population"....and everyone with any knowledge is aware of the picture of the helicopter trying to take off while dozens of Vietnamese were cling to the chopper as we were essentially tucking our tail between our legs and giving up. Same thing all over again...as a registered Republican and conservative I must agree with the growing chorus --- get out of Afghanistan. NOW. We are not fighting a war any more than we did in Vietnam...too many restrictions on when and how we fight the enemy. We can't even tell who the enemy is. We are fighting in a country where the topography works against us. And the Russians, who RUTHLESSLY and mercilessly killed and destroyed, got tired of that third world cesspool and when home, too. we Cannot win anything there. All we do is the same thing we did in Vietnam. Get our best men and women killed for no reason and no discernable objective.
Or we could do just like Iraq: get the Afghanis fighting on their own as best we can and start a slow deliberate withdrawal. But be prepared to go back (atleast with special forces) if Al Queda starts forming bases of operation again.
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