Majority favors US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan: poll

A majority of Americans support pulling troops out of Afghanistan and ending America’s longest war, according to a new poll released this week.

A study from Pew Research Center, conducted prior to the last troop leaving Afghanistan this week, found 54 percent of U.S. adults said the decision to withdraw troops from the country was the right one, while 42 percent said they think it was the wrong move. 

The survey also found a solid 69 percent of the American public feels the United States mostly failed in achieving its goals in Afghanistan, with only 26 percent saying President Biden’s administration has done an excellent or good job in handling the crisis. 

On Tuesday, in a defiant and assertive speech, Biden slammed critics of his decision to pull out of the war-torn nation, saying it was time to end America’s longest war. 

“We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan,” Biden said during an address to the nation. “After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, I refused to send another generation of America’s sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago.”

Biden has faced widespread criticism for his handling of the crisis, which intensified following a suicide bombing carried out on Aug. 26 by ISIS’s affiliate in Afghanistan. The attack killed 13 U.S. service members outside the airport in Kabul.  

The vast majority of Democrats, 70 percent, said they support the decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan, Pew found, while most Republicans, 64 percent, say it was the wrong decision.

The Pew Research Center survey was conducted Aug. 23-29 among 10,348 U.S. adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.6 percentage points.