Americans Say The War In Afghanistan Not Worth Fighting

The Afghan War is growing more unpopular all the time. A new Washington Post/ABC Poll (see the graphic above) shows that a record amount of the American public now thinks the war has not been worth fighting. That is the view of 66% (two-thirds) of the people in this country, while only 30% disagree. And for the first time a majority of Republicans also say the war hasn't been worth fighting -- about 55%.

So what do the two presidential candidates say? Willard Mitt Romney says we shouldn't withdraw until we defeat the Taliban militarily. That may please his right-wing base, but the last ten years has shown it is not a reasonable view. Toppling the Taliban government was easy, but defeating them militarily is a different matter. If we haven't done it in 10 years, why would anyone think it could be done at all?

President Obama is only slightly more reasonable. He has stopped talking about a military victory, and now just says we will train the Afghans to defend themselves and withdraw iat the end of 2014 (another two and a half years). That's also unlikely, considering that their government is corrupt and the soldiers we're training are about as likely to turn their guns on us as on the Taliban.

The ideas of both candidates are out of touch with the reality of the situation in Afghanistan. We have accomplished as much as we're going to accomplish in that country -- and it doesn't matter whether we stay another two and a half years or another ten years.

The American and Afghan people are in agreement. They don't want us to stay in their country, and we don't want to be there. It's time to leave. It's time to bring all of our troops home -- every single one of them.