Two-thirds of Americans call wars in Afghanistan & Iraq mistake

A significant majority of Americans doubt that the war in Afghanistan was worthwhile, even as the US is more divided over President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and national security, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Report informs referring to ABC News.

Roughly two-thirds said they did not think America’s longest war was worth fighting, the poll shows. Meanwhile, 47% approve of Biden’s management of international affairs, while 52% approve of Biden on national security.

Roughly two-thirds also suggest the Iraq War that coincided with Afghanistan was a mistake. Republicans are somewhat more likely than Democrats to say the wars in both countries were worth fighting. About 4 in 10 Republicans do, compared with about 3 in 10 Democrats.

About half of Americans say they are extremely or very concerned about the threat to the US posed by extremist groups based outside of the United States; about another one-third are moderately concerned. Only about 1 in 10 say they are not concerned.

But nearly 20 years after the September 11 attacks that spurred the Afghanistan war, more Americans say they perceive the major national security threats as being internal.

Roughly two-thirds say they are extremely or very concerned about the threat of extremist groups based inside the United States. About one-quarter are somewhat concerned, and about 1 in 10 are not concerned.

Republicans and Democrats see the threat of extremist groups based outside of the US similarly: about half across party lines are extremely or very concerned. But Democrats are more likely than Republicans to be strongly concerned about the threat of extremist groups based in the US, 75% to 57%.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,729 adults was conducted August 12-16 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the US population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.