David Pleasant

According to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, a majority of Americans say the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting and are opposed to sending more troops to the war.

The new poll comes amid widespread speculation that the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, will request more troops for his stepped-up effort to root the Taliban from Afghan towns and villages. That is a position that gets the backing of 24 percent of those polled, while nearly twice as many, 45 percent, want to decrease the number of military forces there. (Most of the remainder say to keep the level about the same.)

[...]

Among all adults, 51 percent now say the war is not worth fighting, up six points since last month and four points above the previous high, reached in February. Less than half, 47 percent, say the war is worth its costs. Those strongly opposed (41 percent) outweigh strong proponents (31 percent).

I wonder if the results would be different if there was not as much focus on health care reform.

Why does The Wall Street Journal hate the troops? (Can you imagine if the NYT had published this piece?)