If it's in the News, it's in our Polls. Public opinion polling since 2003.

ARCHIVE

Confidence That U.S. Is Winning War on Terror Down to Lowest Level Since 2006

Confidence in America's conduct of the war on terror has fallen to its lowest level in four-and-a-half years. 

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 32% of Likely U.S. Voters now believe the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror. That's down eight points from a month ago and the most pessimistic assessment since October 2006.

Twenty-four percent (24%) think the terrorists are winning. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say neither side is winning. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Confidence that American and its allies are winning was in the high 40s and low 50s from July 2008 through the middle of 2009 and began to decline. It's generally remained in the high 30s and low 40s ever since.

The current decline comes as support for the U.S. mission in Libya is also declining.

Thirty-nine percent (39%) of voters now think the United States is safer today that it was before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. That's down from 54% when President Obama took office.

Forty-two percent (42%) disagree and now say the U.S. is not safer.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook. 

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters nationwide was conducted on April 7-8, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Want to read more?

Become a Rasmussen Reader to read the article

Have an account?

Log In

Become a Reader

Subscribe

Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.

We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.

Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $4.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.

To learn more about our methodology, click here.