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Americans Lack Confidence in US Afghanistan Policy

ROCHESTER, N.Y.-(Business Wire)-September 4, 2008 - While Americans may see improvement in Iraq¹, attitudes toward the situation in Afghanistan are spiraling downward, according to a new Harris Poll of 2,710 adults surveyed online between August 11 and 17, 2008 by Harris Interactive^®. Specifically:

One in ten Americans (11%) say the situation in Afghanistan is getting better while 37 percent believe it is getting worse. Just over one-third (35%) believe there is no real change. In May of last year, just one-quarter (26%) said the situation was getting worse while 36 percent said there was no real change and 12 percent of Americans believed it was getting better.
Over half of Americans (54%) are not confident that U.S. policies in Afghanistan will be successful while 17 percent are confident and three in ten (29%) are not sure. In May of 2007, four in ten (41%) Americans said they were not confident while just over two in ten (22%) said they were.
Almost three in ten Americans (28%) say the situation is getting worse while just 13 percent say it is getting better and two in five (40%) say it is the same for U.S. troops. This is a large change from May of last year when just nine percent said the situation was getting worse and over one-third of Americans (36%) said it was getting better.
One-quarter of Americans (25%) say President Bush is doing an excellent or pretty good job on handling the situation in Afghanistan while three in five (62%) say he is doing an only fair or poor job. These numbers are almost identical to the ones from May of 2007 when one-quarter (26%) gave President Bush a positive rating and three in five (63%) gave him a negative one.

So What?

According to Regina A. Corso, Director of The Harris Poll, “What is striking about these three questions on the situation in Afghanistan is the high number of “not sure” responses. One in five (18%) of adults are not sure if the situation in Afghanistan is getting better or worse. Three in ten Americans (29%) are not sure if U.S. policies in Afghanistan will be successful. Further, one in five (20%) adults is not sure if the situation for U.S. troops is better, worse or the same when compared to Iraq.

This demonstrates that while Iraq dominates media coverage, and therefore the attention of Americans, Afghanistan has been pushed to the back of the mind for many. As the fighting in Afghanistan worsens and the situation becomes more dangerous for U.S. troops, the media will most likely pay attention again and then, hopefully, so will more Americans.”

Methodology

This Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between August 11 and 14, 2008 among 2,710 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Full data tables and methodology for this study can be found at www.harrisinteractive.com.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

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About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

¹ Harris Poll, September 3, 2008, http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=945.

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