Poll: Waning Support for Obama on Wars

President Obama talks about Iraq and Afghanistan during a speech in Atlanta, Aug. 2, 2010. (Photo credit: Charles Dharapak / AP via USA Today)

By Richard Wolf

August 2, 2010

Excerpted, with added links to topical reports on this site

WASHINGTON — Public support for President Obama’s Afghanistan war policy has plummeted amid a rising U.S. death toll and the unauthorized release of classified military documents, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows.

Support for Obama’s management of the war fell to 36%, down from 48% in a February poll. Now, a record 43% also say it was a mistake to go to war there after the terrorist attacks in 2001.

The decline in support contributed to the lowest approval ratings of Obama’s presidency. Amid a lengthy recession, more Americans support his handling of the economy (39%) than the war.

Even Obama’s handling of the war in Iraq received record-low approval, despite a drawdown of 90,000 troops and the planned, on-schedule end of U.S. combat operations there this month.

Only 41% of those surveyed Tuesday through Sunday approved of the way Obama is handling his job, his lowest rating in the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll since he took office in January 2009. In Gallup’s separate daily tracking poll, his approval was at 45% Monday.

The waning support for the Afghanistan war coincides with the deaths of a record 66 U.S. servicemembers in July, up from 60 in June. As the last of 30,000 reinforcements ordered by Obama enter the country, the international military force is encountering heavy Taliban resistance in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. …

The drop in support also follows the online posting of more than 76,000 documents by WikiLeaks. Two-thirds of those polled said it was wrong for the website to publish the documents.

Obama said Monday that he’ll stick to his war plan: training Afghans to provide their own security, then beginning to withdraw troops in July 2011. The poll showed most Americans agree: 57% want a timetable for removing troops, and two-thirds of those say withdrawal should be done gradually.

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Topical reports on this site

Americans Oppose Afghan War (Aug. 20, 2010)

Afghan War Deadlier Than Ever (July 31, 2010)

A crowd of Afghan protesters destroy a car during clashes with police following Friday prayers in Kabul on July 30, 2010. Rioting erupted when scores of Afghan men set fire to two U.S. embassy vehicles after one collided with a civilian car killing a number of occupants, officials and witnesses said. (Photo credit: Yuri Cortez / AFP — Getty Images)

Iraq Civilian Deaths at 2-Year High (Aug. 1, 2010)

EPA file

Iraq Security Remains Fragile (July 22, 2010)

Adam Hadei / AP

Mayhem in Baghdad (July 18, 2010)

Reuters

Iraq Election Violence Continues (June 20, 2010)

Hadi Mizban / AP

Iraq Fighters Learn from Taliban (June 17, 2010)

Karim Kadim / AP

Bombings in Iraq, Afghanistan (June 6, 2010)

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Related report

Iraq: Key Figures Since the War Began

 August 2, 2010

U.S. troop levels

• October 2007: 170,000 at peak of troop buildup
• July 31, 2010: 70,000

Casualties

• Confirmed U.S. military deaths as of July 31, 2010: at least 4,413
• Confirmed U.S. military wounded (hostile) as of Aug. 2, 2010: 31,897
• Confirmed U.S. military wounded (non-hostile, using medical air transport) as of July 3, 2010: 39,944
• U.S. military deaths for July 2010: 4, the second lowest monthly death toll since the war began in March 2003
• Deaths of civilian employees of U.S. government contractors as of June 30, 2010: 1,487
• Iraqi deaths in July 2010 from war-related violence: at least 356, the highest since December 2009, which was 383
• Assassinated Iraqi academics as of July 14, 2010: 443
• Journalists killed on assignment as of Aug. 1, 2010: 142

Cost

• Nearly $737 billion, according to the National Priorities Project

Oil production

• Prewar: 2.58 million barrels per day
• July 28, 2010: 2.30 million barrels per day

Population displacement

• Prewar: 500,000 Iraqis living abroad
• July 19, 2010: approximately 1.7 million Iraqis living abroad, mainly in Syria and Jordan
• Prewar: 1,021,962 displaced inside Iraq
• June 19, 2010: approximately 1.55 million currently displaced inside Iraq

Sources: The Associated Press, State Department, Defense Department, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, The Brookings Institution, Committee to Protect Journalists, National Priorities Project, The Brussels Tribunal, United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the U.S. Department of Labor.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — August 4, 2009

Iraq-Afghanistan Casualties

One year ago today, I provided my weekly report of U.S. military deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), compiled from U.S. Department of Defense News Releases.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Two Years Ago — August 4, 2008

Army Spc. Seth Goehring with his son Kolton at his home in Crookston, Minn., Feb. 28, 2008. He and his wife Alicia were married by proxy, 6,500 miles apart, with his mother standing in for him. She was in Montana, he was in Iraq. (Photo credit: Jae C. Hong / The Associated Press)

On the Campaign Trail: Day 21

Two years ago today, on the 21st day of my 2008 campaign against incumbent U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, I featured a candidate profile by St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter Dennis Lien, titled “Bachmann encounters challenger from within.” I also posted a public service announcement to help draw attention to the sacrifice of National Guard citizen soldiers serving in Iraq and the families they leave behind.