Voters are split over whether peace talks with the Taliban would help improve U.S. national security, according to a new national poll.
The Hill-HarrisX survey of registered released on Friday found that a full 50 percent of respondents believe peace talks with the Taliban would have no effect on America’s security. Twenty-seven percent think peace talks with the Islamic militant group would improve national security, while 23 percent say they would actually make it worse.
Independents are more likely to say that peace talks wouldn’t make a difference, at 57 percent. Forty-eight percent of Republicans and 46 percent of Democrats agreed.
Thirty-six percent of Republicans said that peace talks would improve national security, compared to 25 percent of Democrats and 20 percent of independents who said the same.
Democrats were more inclined, at 29 percent, to say that peace talks would hurt national security, along with 23 percent of independents and just 16 percent of Republicans.
Earlier this month, President Trump declared that peace talks with the Taliban were “dead,” after announcing that he had canceled a previously undisclosed planned meeting with Taliban leaders at Camp David.
The decision came after the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Kabul that killed 10 civilians and a U.S. service member.
The survey also comes as the death rate for U.S. troops in the country reaches a five-year high.
Another U.S. service member in Afghanistan was killed in action on Monday, marking the 17th American combat death in the country this year.
The Hill-HarrisX survey was conducted online among 1,003 registered voters between September 13 and September 14. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
—Tess Bonn
hilltv copyright
