By Steve Hynd
The CSM says Americans are finally realising that Obama's occupation of Afghanistan is a quagmire.
Most Americans agree with Obama that McChrystal had to go, polls show. But they�re far less supportive of the conflict itself, weary of what�s become the longest war in US history.
A recent Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters finds that just 41 percent �now believe it is possible for the United States to win the nearly nine-year-old war in Afghanistan.� More to the point, a plurality of 48 percent now say ending the war in Afghanistan is a more important goal than winning it.
Meanwhile, 53 percent of those polled by Newsweek disapprove of how Obama is managing the war � a sharp reversal since February when 55 percent supported Obama on Afghanistan and just 27 percent did not. (Put another way, the percentage of Americans who disapprove of Obama�s Afghan policy has nearly doubled in four months.)
The same Newsweek poll finds that �46 percent of respondents think America is losing the war in Afghanistan (26 percent say the military is winning). A similar plurality think the US is losing the broader war on terrorism (43 percent vs. 29 percent)��
Part of this has to do with the nature of a counterinsurgency (COIN) effort � a phrase and acronym which has been around at least since the early days of Vietnam. Even when it works, counterinsurgency can take years. And the two most recent major examples � France in Algeria and the United States in Vietnam � hardly worked.
Imagine what those poll numbers will look like by the time 2015 - the G8's new withdrawal date - rolls around.
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