Most Americans see Afghan fight worth US bloodshed: poll

[JonLP24]

NEW YORK — A solid majority of Americans are willing to see some of their countrymen die to achieve a terror-free Afghanistan, but US misgivings about sending more troops remain, a poll released Wednesday said.

Sixty-five percent of US voters "are willing to have American soldiers 'fight and possibly die' to eliminate the threat of terrorists operating from Afghanistan," according to the Quinnipiac University poll. Only 28 percent said otherwise.

But 49 percent of those surveyed said the United States will not be successful in crushing the Taliban insurgency as it gathers steam, against 38 percent who projected success in the US-led mission.

The findings came amid growing public anxiety and party divisions over the course of the eight-year war against a backdrop of rising troop deaths and an Afghan election widely seen as fraudulent.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hq7eQnaJQCCdXnISZJ6OiXFy-pYw

Edited to add I'm not one of those Americans in case you were wondering my motivations for this post. Just found a story, wasn't sure if it was LBN and posted it here.

[tekisui]

1. Most Americans still believe they should be afraid of boogeymen.

[Echo In Light]

2. Yet way too few fear the War Machine, and the dark spectre of nuclear annihilation

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Note the word 'terrorists' not 'insurgents'. I see Americans supporting the continued hunt

for bin Laden, but not to take on the Taliban. This is the decision on strategy that Obama is trying to make.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Exactly. I was one of those called for this poll, and the way they

phrased some of the questions brought out the wrong impression. For instance, I feel that Obama should have 3 years to fix it - essentially, it will take two years to see if a new focus of the elimination of Al Queda, while marginalizing the Taliban politically, will be effective and, if it is not, another six months to pack up and get out. That puts me in the 'three to five years' catagory, but there is NO way we can be there for more than three more years. If we don't see results in two, we need to bail. So I came out in the "14%" of the "3-5 years", and that's not where I belong at all. OTOH, I could not say 1-2 years because I don't see that we can change course that quickly. How do you quickly decouple a Taliban/Al Queda approach and rework it into a Taliban, and Al Queda, approach.

Not that I'm an imperialist, by any means, but any idiot knows that you DON'T force disparate groups into joining together as a single enemy. That is the opposite of what the 'surge' in Iraq did - we isolated each faction, dealt with each separately as circumstances warranted - some with force, some with alliance, some with bribery - and cooled the shit down. THAT is what we need to do in Afghanistan. Deal with Al Queda separately from the Taliban, and separately from the warlord poppy growers, and separately from the non-Pashtun minorities, and so on. And we are not going to be able to do that in under two years - not after having made the entire country a free-fire zone for the past 8 years.

For an imperialist, that might be called divide and conquer. I see it as, rather, isolate and engage.

[timtom]

8. Exactly which Obama would that be?

The dead one? Or one of a couple of cute not-so-lookalikes?

[sinkingfeeling]

12. Are you implying that President Obama is dead? Or don't you know how to spell Osama?

[timtom]

13. OMG!!!

What has happened to me??? My credibility is shot.

FWIW: Osama -- NOT Obama!

I'm a victim of the RW screeds, I tell you.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. You're forgiven because I like your Irish avatar.

[timtom]

16. Thanks, sinkingfeeling.

And I play a neo-Celtic harp, too.

[ixion]

4. "terror-free" what a ridiculous phrase

seriously.

[FiveGoodMen]

6. +1,000,000 (dead Iraqis)

Anyone who believes terrorism can be eliminated is far too stupid to participate in a Democracy. (But they can certainly destroy one!)

[FiveGoodMen]

7. If most Americans thought that throwing kids into volcanoes to appease the gods was a good idea

Would that make it a good idea?

[Orsino]

9. Dumbasses. n/t

[Romulox]

10. Most Americans believed there were WMDs, are obese and love SUVs.

:hi:

[closeupready]

11. Most Americans haven't been placed in harm's way deliberately.

Easy to be pro-war when you have no skin in the game, isn't it?

[Stinky The Clown]

15. This is because there are no leaders out there telling them they should think otherwise.

The only message from the white house is should we send 20K more FPDGs or 60K PFDGs.