Poll shows only 12 percent of Americans believe U.S. policy in Afghanistan is successful

2010-11-02 23:34:34 GMT+7 (ICT)

NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- Only 12 percent of Americans are confident that U.S. policies in Afghanistan will be successful and 60 percent are not confident, according to the latest Harris Poll released on Tuesday.

The poll, which surveyed 3,084 adults online between October 11 and October 18, also showed that 58 percent of the public gives President Barack Obama a negative rating when it comes to his handling of Afghanistan.

The latest poll showed that the number of people who are not confident about U.S. policies in Afghanistan has continued to rise over the past few months. With 60 percent now saying they are not confident, this compares to 55 percent in June and 53 percent in January.

However, only one quarter (26 percent) of the public thinks that the U.S. should withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan now, while one-third (34 percent) believe the U.S. should set a timetable for withdrawal. However, the poll demonstrates that a general U.S. perspective is indecisive as one in every five say more troops should be sent to Afghanistan for a few months to stabilize the situation or are not sure.

The poll also shows that half of Democrats give President Obama positive ratings on his handling of Afghanistan while almost two in every five (38 percent) give him negative ratings, as do four in five Republicans (80 percent) and two-thirds of Independents (66 percent).

Other findings in the poll include that most people either see no real change in Afghanistan (49 percent) or are not sure (13 percent). Among those with an opinion, many more people think the situation is getting worse (27%) than think it is getting better (11%).

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And how many percent of them could find Afghanistan on a map?