US Public Back Withdrawal from Afghanistan But Not Biden’s Handling Of It

With US troops now having fully withdrawn from Afghanistan, the Pew Research Center has published new  polling on the attitudes of those in the US towards the decision to leave and the handling of the evacuations of US citizens and Afghans who supported the US effort.

The data shows that a majority of US adults (54%) believe it was the right thing to withdraw troops, with 42% saying it was the wrong thing. It finds also a sense of pessimism about the mission, with 69% arguing that the United States has “mostly failed in achieving its goals in Afghanistan.”

Whilst the public seem to support troop withdrawals, they remain critical of the way it has been handled by the administration under President Biden. Just 26% say the administration has done an excellent or good job, 29% say it has done an only fair job and 42% say it has done a poor job.

It goes on to say: “Just 7% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents rate the administration’s performance on Afghanistan positively, and fewer than half of Democrats and Democratic leaners (43%) say it has done an excellent or good job.”

46% of respondents argued that with the Taliban now back in control of Afghanistan it represents a major security threat to the US, with 44% saying it posses a minor threat.

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