Americans Lack Confidence in US Afghanistan Policy
Three in Five Give President Bush Negative Ratings on Handling
Afghanistan
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – September 4, 2008 ― While
Americans may see improvement in Iraq, 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."
TABLE 1
RATING OF PRESIDENT BUSH ON AFGHANISTAN
"Overall, how would you rate the job that President Bush
has done in handling Afghanistan over the last several months?"
Base: All Adults
|
|
Excellent |
Pretty Good |
Only Fair |
Poor |
Not Sure |
Positive* |
Negative** |
|
|
% |
% |
% |
% |
% |
% |
% |
|
August, 2008 |
4 |
21 |
26 |
36 |
13 |
25 |
62 |
|
May, 2007 |
6 |
19 |
23 |
39 |
12 |
26 |
63 |
Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.
* Positive = excellent or pretty good. ** Negative = only fair or poor
TABLE 2
SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN – GETTING BETTER OR WORSE
"Do you think that the situation in Afghanistan is…?"
Base: All Adults
|
|
July 2005 |
May
2007
|
August
2008
|
|
% |
% |
% |
|
Getting better |
17 |
12 |
11 |
|
Getting worse |
30 |
26 |
37 |
|
No real change |
37 |
36 |
35 |
|
Not sure |
16 |
26 |
18 |
Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.
TABLE 3
CONFIDENCE IN SUCCESS?
"How confident are you that U.S. policies in Afghanistan
will be successful?"
Base: All Adults
| |
July
2005
|
May
2007
|
August
2008
|
|
% |
% |
% |
|
Confident |
25 |
22 |
17 |
|
Not confident |
45 |
41 |
54 |
|
Not sure |
30 |
37 |
29 |
Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.
TABLE 4
COMPARISON WITH IRAQ
"Compared to Iraq, do you think the situation in
Afghanistan is…?"
Base: All Adults
| |
May
2007
|
August
2008
|
|
% |
% |
|
Better for U.S. troops |
36 |
13 |
|
Same for U.S. troops |
34 |
40 |
|
Worse for U.S. troops |
9 |
28 |
|
Not sure |
21 |
20 |
Note: Percentages may not add up exactly to 100% due to rounding.
Methodology
This Harris Poll® was conducted online within the
United States between August 11and 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.
All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use
probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most
often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage
error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording
and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore,
Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are
misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors
with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100%
response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close
to this ideal.
Respondents for this survey were selected from among those
who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been
weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. 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.
These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of
the National Council on Public Polls.
J34911
Q645, 650, 655, 660
| 
